I Want
by padfoot's prose
Summary: A series of Troyella oneshots. All based on an icon message: "I want a guy who will..." Full summary as intro. Rated T for safety. Please give it a chance!
1. Intro

**Okay, I would write this like a trailer but I really don't want to so I won't.**

**Basically, this is going to be a series of one-shots based on an icon that I found. You know those ones that say stuff like: "Don't take away someone's Hope, it may be all they have" and stuff like that? Well, this is one of them, but it has 18 little parts. I don't want to give too much away but I thought it'd make sense to explain this rather than just starting it.**

**So, each of the chapters will be titled as one line from the icon and the oneshot will relate to the chapter title. In all of the chapters Troy and Gabi will be the same age and the chapter aren't necessarily in chronological order. The chapters could be short or long or whatever, but I promise that I will finish this by New Years (which I know is ages away but given how long it's been taking me to post lately, 18 chapter could take me that long).**

**This will not mean that I don't keep writing First Time and Just Friends, I plan for this to take the longest out of all three that I'm working on.**

**Each chapter will be dedicated to at maximum 3 people, they could be non-fanfic friends or reviewers or people's whose stories I've read and liked or chacters in a book or movie or ssome famous person, absolutely anyone, but each person can only be dedicated to once which means that if every single dedication is to a reviewer I'll need (18 x 3 54) DIFFERENT reviewers... so real world friends, randoms, and favourite characters be ready for some major dedications.**

**If you review now you can have the first chapter dedicated to you... and i mean now cos I plan to post in about two hours.**

**P.S. this is planned to be my most serious FanFic so far... I just thought I'd mention that.**

** 3 Jg Rox!!!**


	2. HAIR, EYES, KISS

**N, I don't plan on leaving very long messages on all of the chapters but just so you know each of the chapter titles have the words 'I want a guy who will-'**

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical**

_Dedication- This chapter is dedicated to Schnazzy Jazzy, because she was the only person who reviewed my introduction_

* * *

**Move the **_**HAIR**_** away from my **_**EYES**_** and then **_**KISS**_** me…**

Gabriella felt the silent sobs take over as her shaking body collapsed onto her bed.

First, it had begun with tears, not many of them, but in a relentless stream down her beautiful face. Then the sobs came, big and silent, pulsing through her entire body with each new wave of sadness. She didn't think her mother had even noticed her noiseless suffering, but then again, who would?

Troy.

A silent answer flitted through Gabriella's mind, and she grasped that answer, holding onto it tight to stop herself from losing all hope. Troy understood. Troy would have known even from silence that something was wrong, Troy knew everything about her, and that's what made them so perfect together. But Troy was gone.

Another desperate sob escaped Gabriella as the comforting thought of Troy crawled out of her grasp, disappearing like steam as it rose above her and disappeared into the air. She felt more tears leak out of her eyes as the idea of a refuge from her sadness disappeared with Troy, fading away to nothingness in the cool breeze wafting from her balcony.

A sharp tap disrupted Gabriella's thoughts and she lifted her head from her arms and glanced at her open balcony door. She gasped in relief as a blurred figure appeared in her gaze. His hair was dark and dishevelled, and he looked exhausted and sweaty in his red and white basketball uniform, but regardless, he was there, finding her.

Troy threw open the flyscreen separating him from his obviously distressed girlfriend and ran to her side, enveloping her in his safe arms. Gabriella let herself fall into Troy's arms, uncurling her body so instead it was curled around his, her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He lifted her off her bed for a moment, the sat down with her on his lap, still holding him tight with her arms and legs.

He shushed her gently, stroking her soft hair and touching his lips to her cheeks, forehead, lips, or any skin that he could reach. She cried into his shoulder, drenching it quickly as her tears mingled with his drying sweat. She could fel his lips against her skin, leaving tiny patches of tingling hope everywhere they touched.

Her arms tightened around him as a fresh wave of tears overwhelmed her. He just continued speaking in his soft voice, his lips brushing gently against her skin, never asking for a reason or an excuse to do anything more or less than be with her.

Eventually, her sobs died down to a peaceful trail of tears down her soft cheeks. The couple pulled away from each other for the first time in what felt like years. Gabriella sat back on Troy's lap, still straddling him with her legs and keeping her arms around his neck. He held her back with both hands, ensuring her that she was safe and he wouldn't let anything happen to her while he was there for her.

A shy smile finally graced her lips as Troy's gentle hand reached and pushed a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. He smiled back and let his hand linger on her cheek, softly caressing it with all of the love he could convey to her. She rubbed her hand up his neck and played with the longer parts of his hair, her other hand creeping under his shirt to touch his back lightly.

Troy felt the moment between them reach its climax when their eyes met properly, and all thoughts besides Gabriella's beauty left his mind. He leant forward haltingly; unsure of whether a moment as delicate as this would be shattered by a tender kiss, but the loving spark in her eyes answered his unasked question. He watched her eyelids flutter closed, then felt his do the same, before pressing his lips to hers in a soft kiss, full of love and compassion.

And in that perfect moment as they kissed their troubles and grief away, both of them knew: this was what they wanted.

* * *


	3. HANDS, JEALOUS

**Okay, my next bit, and just reminding you, all of the chapter names have the phrase 'I want a guy who will-' beofre them**

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical**

_Dedicated to x-ImAgInE-x because she said I was a talented writer, xxxbethaniaxxx because she can't wait to read the rest and LittleIzzyBear because writing is totally my thing!_

**Hold my **_**HAND **_**in the line at the mall and make all the girls **_**JEALOUS**_**…**

Gabriella took another sip from her milkshake, trying to ignore Troy's deep blue eyes digging into her. Troy watched his girlfriend carefully, deciding whether or not he should just share her drink, or go buy his own. He knew he couldn't buy his own, cause that would make them seem very separate, but it wasn't like he could just grab her drink and scoff some down.

Gabriella finished her sip and brought her head back up, looking awkwardly at Troy sitting across the table from her. Okay, so sure it was their first day as an official couple, but _why did it have to be so awkward_!? She tried not to let her screaming feelings show on her face.

"So…" Troy began, obviously attempting to dissolve some of the tension, it didn't work, in fact, Gabriella could almost felt he huge wedge of tension between them increase in size at his words.

"Yeah… so…" She tried too, she really did, but tension didn't like being, it was nice and comfy in the middle of the unstable round table, just like all of the ones at Donut King. She let her eyes wander around the food court, looking for any subject to talk about besides 'so'. She couldn't find one.

"Hey, Gabs… Gabi… Gabriella…" Troy began, losing his confidence just as he begun his sentence.

"Hmm?" She asked, still not looking at him.

"Why is this so awkward?" Her eyes shot to look into his, that was an unexpected twist.

"Maybe because we've never really done this before. All of our 'couple-y' stuff was sort of done in the privacy of our own homes, not out in public like this." Gabriella waited for Troy's eyes to avert away from hers before she let her mouth fall open. What in the world had inspired such bluntly obvious words?

"So you're saying that if we got used to acting couple-y outside of the privacy of our own homes this wouldn't be awkward?" Troy looked genuinely curious.

"It might still be awkward, but at least not as awkward." Gabriella shrugged, managing to stop gaping at herself for long enough to answer Troy. Troy nodded stiffly, and a weird expression came onto his face. He looked down at his knees for a moment, then let his cobalt eyes hold Gabriella's chocolate ones. She shuffled self-consciously in her sticky plastic chair, his eyes were much too deep to be human, and they were definitely unnerving her.

She shuffled uncomfortably again, desperately trying to escape from Troy's cobalt prison, or at least to say something, but all of her self-control seemed to have run away at this crucial time. She felt Troy's hand touch hers, resting on the table top, and a fizzy tingle spread through her skin, making her feel flushed and exposed.

"So then why don't we make it less awkward?" Troy almost purred to her, the seductive gleam obvious in his eyes now. Gabriella wanted to nod, or to do anything really, but her self-control still hadn't returned to her.

Instead, she realised suddenly that one of her hands was running up Troy's arm, and coming to a rest on his toned forearm while the other let his hand caress it lightly. She felt her breathing hitch when she found that Troy's head was now only centimetres away from hers, and slowly tilting ever closer. She thought that her eyes had stopped working when flashing colours appeared before them, but finally realised, just as Troy's lips touched hers, that in fact her eyes had closed on their own account. She smiled for absolutely no reason into the kiss, and without knowing it pushed herself even harder against Troy, so that now as much of both of them that was above the tabletop was against the other.

"You know… some people… don't… like… PD… Troy…?" She murmured into the kiss.

"P… D…?"

"You know what that means!" she pointed out indignantly, pulling away for a moment.

"Not if you don't show me." He answered, his eyes still gleaming as he pulled her back against him. She laughed lightly but had to stop when his tongue nudged her bottom lip, surprising her but in a good way.

Once the couple had finished making out in the middle of the food court, they stood and threw their rubbish in the bin, Gabriella holding onto her still unfinished drink. They wandered through the mall, holding hands, laughing and acting generally couple-y. The two stopped by a crowded music store; full of screaming girls and Troy watched Gabriella's curious expression as to why so many teenage girls were so excited.

"Do you want to go in?" he asked her, wondering if he should even ask; did it make it seem like he thought he was in charge? Gabriella nodded slowly, looking suddenly shy at the sheer number of intimidatingly thin, blonde girls, wearing much shorter skirts than her modest length one. "Are you sure, a few girls in there go to East High and they might… you know… know me…?" Troy tried to act modest, he really did, but modesty didn't exactly get the point across about the dangerously high levels of flirting he encountered regularly from similar tall blondes.

"Uh, you know what, we don't actually have to go in… I don't really like the band anyway." Troy raised his eyebrows; even small, innocent Gabriella loved getting autographs from touring bands. She'd been excited when the store had put up the sign advertising the free show over a month ago and had been talking about going since then.

"C'mon, Gabi, you love the band, plus, they might be selling the album for a discount." Troy began pulling her towards the store, but she resisted. He turned to look at her, her bottom was stuck out slightly in an unintentional pout, which he couldn't help but notice made her look adorable. "What if I promise to blow off any attempt at flirting, I won't even look at any of them, let alone talk to them." Gabriella let out a small laugh.

"You normally look at them?" she asked, a cheeky smile playing on her lips. Troy shrugged, and then yelped when she hit his arm.

"Okay, okay. I used to kinda like that one." He pointed to a particularly thin blonde who was earning a lot of stares from random passers by. He examined Gabriella for any signs of jealousy, but she didn't seem to mind his confession. "But I swear I'm completely over that now, you're my new crush." Gabriella let out a giggle and squeezed his hand. "So you gonna show them how whipped you got Troy Bolton?" He smiled at her affectionately and they walked side by side into the store.

"Oh yeah, Troy?" he looked down at her. "Do you want to finish this?" She held up the half empty milkshake that she still had. He shrugged and smiled and took it from he, sipping it immediately and vaguely tasting her lipgloss on the straw.

Or maybe he was imagining it; just like maybe he was imagining the death-glares aimed at him and Gabriella as they wove through the packed store. Just like maybe he was the happiest he'd ever been, walking through the mall with his girlfriend, making all the other girls jealous of her. Just like maybe this was what he'd always wanted.

**Hmm, much longer than the last one... btw, if I don't dedicate a chapter to you even thoguh you reviewed, fear not(!) I will dedicate something to every single reviewer... I promise!**


	4. SLEEP, CHEST

_This is dedicated to SunsetsAndStars, bienbonita and hsm2lover because there was an 'aw' or an 'aww' in all of their reviews._

**Let me **_**SLEEP**_** on his **_**CHEST**_**…**

Gabriella sat at her desk stiffly, trying not to yawn as she pretended to read the web page in front if her. Who was she pretending for? Even she had no idea. Originally she'd taken to the idea of starting the assignment with a feeling of anticipation, Saturn was a really exciting topic, right? Turns out it wasn't. She sighed and sat back in her chair, hearing her back crack as it was moved for the first time in over two hours. She wanted to yell out to her mum and tell her that she was going for a run, but then remembered that her mum wasn't there. How annoying.

She stood slowly, shaking her leg to try and rid it of the tingly pins-and-needles feeling, and stumbled over to her balcony door. She looked through the cold glass at the night outside. The trees in her yard were thrashing around in the wind, and leaves were being blown in spirals around the lawn. It was autumn, and the wind was normal, but she couldn't help being a little frightened of the looming trees that were being so easily bent by the strong breeze.

Turning away from the door, she began towards her bed, but stopped part way. Her mum was away all night, she could do anything… the idea startled her. Suddenly she felt hot blood rush to her cheeks when the reality of 'anything' hit her. So not quite anything, only the anythings that she wanted to do… nothing involving Troy… nothing really…

She guiltily glanced at the photo beside her bed, Troy's tanned face smiling up at her. He didn't usually let himself be in photos, but he'd made an exception that one time after much begging. The collar of his Wildcats jersey was just visible at the bottom of the picture, and you could tell that he was quite close to the camera. Gabriella picked up the picture and looked at it closer, if you looked really hard you could see the school out the window of the car he was in. Her car, or more precisely her mum's car was parked across the road from the school, and her mum had just gotten out when Troy finally agreed to smile for one photo. Gabriella couldn't even remember why he'd gone with her to the game instead of with his parents, but she was sure there was a reason… besides because she was his girlfriend.

She smiled to herself and put the picture back exactly where she'd picked it up, angled so she could easily see it from her bed, but so it didn't look too much like she went to sleep every night staring at it. Which she did do; but no one needed to know that. She tenderly traced the outline of Troy's body, letting her finger take in every perfect detail; his broad shoulders, toned arms and chest (although not visible through the jersey she knew it existed), soft hands, shyly seductive smile, dark hair with lighter streaks and amazingly deep blue eyes. She was secretly glad that no one could read her mind, what sort of person memorized a photo to that much detail?

Gabriella jumped when the phone rung, knocking the picture off her bedside table. She gasped as it plummeted towards the floor, but then found that it was in her hand again… maybe some of Troy's reflexes were rubbing off on her. She let out the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding, then quickly reached for the phone, also on the table.

"Hello?"

"Hey Gabi."

"Troy! I was just thinking about you." She realised after she said it how weird it sounded.

"Oh… really?"

"Mm. You know that photo that I have you, like the only photo that you ever let me take?" Troy's laugh echoed through the phone and Gabriella felt butterflies in her stomach.

"Yeah, that one that you stare at every night when I'm not there…" It was Gabriella's turn to laugh and Troy's turn to feel his heart start beating that much faster.

"Yeah, that one. Well, I was just looking at it, and did you know that you can see the school in the background?" Gabriella let a tiny bit of sarcasm into her voice, just so Troy would know that she hadn't in fact been looking hard at the background.

"Really, that's absolutely amazing." Troy's tone dripped with sarcasm in his response, hoping that Gabriella would get he was fighting her sarcasm with his.

"I know, isn't it?!" She laughed at her own fake-exciting tone.

There was silence for a moment as they listened to each other. Troy found himself listening hard for any detail, he so badly wanted to know everything about his girlfriend. What was she doing right now? Was she on her computer, typing? Or maybe she was lying in her bed reading… he wished he knew, but all he could hear was the soothing rhythm of her quiet breaths.

"Hey, Gabi?" He said softly, not wanting to ruin the precious moment.

"Hm?" He tone was as soft as his, so she could feel it too, even over the phone.

"How would you like to come over tonight? Cause I know that your mum's out, and I could use some extra company."

"Um…" Gabriella thought for a moment, it's not that she didn't want to spend the night with Troy, she just wondered what could happen.

"We don't have to do anything… or, you know, I guess we could at least… sleep." His tone was awkward too, so he didn't mean anything by it, he really only wanted to be with her. Gabriella smiled lightly.

"Yeah, sure. I just need to… get changed…" She stood as carefully as possible, trying not to let troy know that she was moving.

"Oh, if you're already in bed or something then don't worry, I don't need you here."

"I know, but I want to be with you." She knew it sounded corny and out of place, but when she was caught up in moment like this, how was she supposed to control her mouth?

"Yeah, I want to be with you too. So maybe I could go over to your place?" His tone was unnecessarily hopeful. Why? He asked himself, it's not like it mattered if anyone's parents were nearby or not, its not like they were planning on doing anything. Or maybe in his subconscious he was… the idea scared him.

"No, I wasn't in bed anyway. Besides it's kind of scary here with all the wind. You don't have any trees in your yard so I'll feel safer at your place." Troy held back a sigh; he liked the idea of his subconscious being denied what it thought he wanted.

"Okay, so I'll see you in ten?"

"Yep. I promise."

"Cool, you can just come in the front door though, no sneaking this time." They both laughed, last time he'd tried to sneak her in it hadn't been a huge success… because her shirt had ended up in the hallway.

"Okay. Bye, love you."

"I love you too."

---

Troy heard a knock on his door and raced downstairs to open it, his parents staring at him with equally perplexed expressions. He stopped at the door, took a deep breath and attempted to fix his hair, which was flat at the back because he'd been lying on his bed for so long. Slowly, so as not to seem to eager to see Gabriella, he opened the door, and had to use all of his self control to resist grabbing her and kissing her when he finally saw her. She was wearing a plain singlet and jeans, obviously not bothering to go to any real effort, but to him she looked amazing… just like always.

"Hey." He managed to force himself to say.

"Hey yourself." She answered, poking him in the middle of the chest as she pushed past him into his house. He watched her walked past him and into the living room where his parents were watching TV with an amused expression, she fitted in so well at his house, teasing him and treating his parents with comfortable ease. He closed the door and followed her into the room, unable to help smiling when he saw her sitting next to his mum on the couch, chatting lightly about who knows what.

"-definitely, and when I saw him that other time doing the report on… oh, hi Troy, it was nice of you to warn us that Gabriella was dropping by." Troy let a guilty expression creep onto his face for a moment, before he continued his goofy, unexplainable, only-exists-when-Gabriella-is-around smile.

"Oh I am so sorry, Mrs. Bolton, I thought he would've warned you, did I interrupt anything?" Troy rolled his eyes at her overly polite tone, he knew she actually meant it and just automatically felt that she had to be polite to all adults, but seriously, she made him seem rude and obnoxious in comparison.

"No, Gabriella don't be silly. You're welcome here any time." Troy's mum answered. Gabriella smiled and stood, making her way over to Troy who was sitting on the arm of a chair. She opened her mouth to get him in trouble but he put his hand over it and she just stared at him indignantly.

"I completely forgot to warn tem cause I was so focussed making myself look wonderful for you. You know it takes a lot of time to look as great as I do all the time." He said in a mock-serious tone. Both Gabriella and his mum gave him 'as if' looks. "Why is it that girls are allowed to use that excuse?" he asked his dad, trying to ignore Gabriella's efforts to remove his hand from over her mouth. Jack Bolton shrugged in response, obviously as clueless as his son was in that area.

"Because girls actually look good by the end of it. That shirt you're wearing has a huge grass stain on it." Troy looked down at his shirt and realised that his mother was right. He looked back up at Gabriella who had a 'told you so' look on her face, which changed to slightly nervous when she saw the cheeky gleam in his eyes. In one movement, Troy took his hand off Gabriella's mouth, pulled his shirt off over his head and pulled Gabriella down onto the chair behind him, him leaning over from her right side, his breath somewhere near her ear.

"Is this better?" He whispered to her, aware that he'd have to explain to his parents what he'd done later. He heard Gabriella's breath hitch at his purring tone and let his lips graze her ears slightly before leaning back again and casually watching the muted documentary on the TV.

Gabriella was sitting in slight shock at what Troy had just done. Sure, she'd seen him shirtless before, more times than she could count, and sure, he'd even been shirtless in front of his parents with her, heck, he'd even been shirtless in front of her mum with her (but that experience had been unintentional… long story involving a not properly closed door and a breeze coming in from the balcony). But this was different. It also wasn't that she wasn't used to him teasing her, and her teasing him back, they'd done heaps together and gotten pretty far (just not all the way yet) but he'd never been so open and un-shy in front of his parents.

Mrs. Bolton de-muted the TV and they four of them sat watching it in silence for a while, no one taking in anything because the high levels of tension were much louder than the TV could be. Troy couldn't help but creep his arm around Gabriella's virtually bare shoulders, feeling her bra strap through her top and lightly caressing her soft skin.

"You know what?" Troy's dad said after a while. Everyone looked at him.

"What if we-" he motioned to himself and his wife "-go upstairs and you two can watch this." Troy and Gabriella glanced at each other, then quickly looked away again.

"I have a better idea." Troy said. "We'll go upstairs and you guys stay down here." He stood up, and pulled Gabriella with him with his hand around her shoulders. His parents watched as the young couple disappeared out of the room and hurried upstairs.

Troy and Gabriella reached his room and he quickly motioned her in, closing the door behind them then opening it again when he thought better of it.

"Sorry." He said immediately, standing awkwardly in front of the open bedroom door, watching her sit on his double bed, trying to use up as little space as possible.

"It's okay." She said immediately, letting a small smile onto her face to show she was being honest. He still looked unconvinced. "It really is. I just, you know… I don't really think I'm-"

"-ready for… anything." He interrupted and she looked down guiltily, as if feeling bad that she wasn't ready. "Yet." He added as an afterthought. She looked back up at him and he nodded assuringly at her; he was willing to wait until she was ready. She hugged her knees up to her chest protectively, still avoiding his glance. An expression of concern came to his face when he saw her unsuccessfully try to suppress a shiver.

He went over to her and sat beside her, putting his arm around her shoulder again, but this time without the awkward feelings. She leant into him, still holding her knees so she was balled up against his chest, completely relying on him for balance. He slowly leant back, letting her fall with him onto the bed, loving the feeling of her small body against his bare chest. She stiffly uncurled herself as he pulled the sheets from the base of his bed over them both.

Troy sighed at the pure bliss of the situation. No awkwardness, no tension, just him and her curled up together in his bed. Gabriella shifted slightly so her body was at an angle to his, all of her upper body splayed over his chest with her head buried in her neck and the rest of her body on the bed beside him.

She moved her head up so it was just under his ear and whispered almost silently,

"Yet…" letting the single syllable fade into a breath as she lowered her head again. They both smiled as their eyes fluttered shut. Soon both of them were in a deep sleep, not needing to dream because everything they wanted was right there next to them. What more could they ever want?


	5. MAD, UGLY

_Dedicated to zanessafan19, xo-me123-xo and soccerfriends118 cos they all wanted me to update (no, not write more, or keep going, or do the next chapter, specifically update) _

**Get **_**MAD**_** at someone if they called me **_**UGLY**_** or were mean to me…**

Gabriella wandered dully down the almost empty hallway at East High. Not many people bothered to hang around after school if they didn't have anything to do, but she sort of liked it when such a normally busy and loud place was quiet and almost serene.

She was, of course, waiting for Troy to finish basketball cause he'd promised to take her out for dinner, but it was a closed practise and she didn't mind doing her homework in the library for a while. When her and Troy had first started going out, most people had been okay with it. What with starring together in the musical and all of the post-championship euphoria, it was almost expected that they'd end up together, but not many people had expected it to stick. Gabriella now found herself walking down packed hallways getting glares from everyone second person, whether it be girls who liked Troy, or boys who just felt like glaring.

She sighed tiredly and opened her locker, smiling slightly at the many pictures in it. There were at least three pictures of her and Troy, smiling cheesily at the camera and doing bunny ears on each other from after the opening night of the musical. Holding hands and looking young and innocent from a picnic that they'd gone on with their friends. And one of them kissing softly for the finale of the musical. Nothing too personal; nothing that revealed the real depth of their relationship. There were other pictures too, ones of her mum and friends, but the ones with Troy really stood out the most, they were the ones that kept her going when all of those people were glaring and shooting nasty comments at her.

She sighed again and pulled her bag out of her locker, checking that she had all the books that she needed… which was none because she'd already finished all of her homework. Shrugging to herself, she swung her locker closed and hoisted her bag over her shoulder; it was a weird, empty feeling to not at least have some books in it. She quickly hurried to Troy's locker and pulled out his bag, loading it with all of the homework he had, which was a significant amount more than her. She smiled when she realised that all of his books wouldn't fit in his bag, so happily put some into hers. Standing up, she felt much more comfortable with the weight of a few books in her bag, and continued down the hallway, carrying Troy's bag in her arms with hers on her back.

When she reach the gym door she pressed her ear against to see if training was still on, the sound of basketballs bouncing continuously against the wooden floor answered her question so she quickly turned off into the boys locker rooms, positive that no one would be in there. She cautiously walked down the narrow corridor, past the showers and into the change rooms that smelt like a horrible mix between body odour and deodorant. Covering her nose, she weaved through the two month old t-shirts and shorts littering the floor until she found Troy's gym bag, just as dishevelled and smelly as the rest, but at least with nothing hanging out of it. She dropped his school bag onto the floor next to it, tucking both neatly against the wall so that his school bag could stand up properly. She was about to leave, when she decided to add one more thing. Sitting down, she opened her bag and ripped a blank page out of one of Troy's books, grabbing a pen from her pocket at the same time.

Gabriella bit her lip as she scribbled a rough message to Troy, and added a few extra X's at the end of the note. She kissed it lightly, leaving a very faint pinkish mark from her lip-gloss and folded it in half, writing in big, bold letters 'TROY' on the side that was facing up. She giggled quietly and dodged past the mouldy smelling bags back out of the room, speeding up in the hallway just in case they'd finished early and were getting ready for their showers… or in them already… urgh.

Once back in the main hallway, Gabriella made her way towards the drama room, hoping that she might be able to watch the auditions for the Spring Musical, affectionately dumped 'Sharpay's Revenge' by many of her friends. She could hear voices as she neared the theatre and left her bag outside she could quietly slip in and take a seat at the back, watching as Sharpay and Ryan pranced around the stage doing who-knows-what.

Gabriella held back a laugh as Sharpay slipped on something and fell in attempted grace onto the floor, immediately yelling at Ryan. Sharpay slowly stood up, then started yelling about how she'd definitely broken her back and how she was going to sue Ryan, Gabriella had to resist pointing out that you had to be over 18 to sue someone and that if an under 18 did sue their parents took over it… so Sharpay's parents would end up suing Ryan's parents, i.e., themselves.

As Sharpay continued yelling, Gabriella couldn't help watching as Kelsie watched on helplessly, unable to get either of the twins refocussed on the rehearsal. Gabriella caught the small girl's eye and they smiled at each other, Kelsie's whole face looking relieved when she realised that her friend was there to witness her troubles. Suddnely A sharp yell sounded and Gabriella looked back at Sharpay, who was glaring angrily at her.

"Have you come to ruin our musical again Montez?" Sharpay yelled up to Gabriella, who opened her mouth to answer, the decided that the question was rhetorical. "Because your little Baksetball-Boy isn't here to save you this time. At least he's finally dumped you so he can get the sort of girl he deserves… me!" Gabriella felt her eyes prickle even though she knew that nothing Sharpay said was true. "Why did he dump you Gabriella? Did he finally figure out that you're just a nosy little nerd? Or did he just dump you for the sake of it?" The first tear dropped down Gabriella's cheek.

She had always tried to see the good side of Sharpay, but she'd never actually seen it, apparently there wasn't one. Then again, how was Sharpay meant to know that Gabriella was always dreading Troy would figure out that she was a just a nerd? How could Sharpay know that every time Gabriella talked to Troy she was worried that she wasn't good enough? Sharpay didn't know, and never would know, so really, she didn't know the harm that her words were causing.

"Where is he now? At his home, supposedly crying his beautiful eyes out over you? Ha! As if! Why would he cry over someone as ugly as you? He's probably drawing up a game plan… on how to ASK ME OUT!" Gabriella turned and ran out the theatre, barely remembering to grab her bag as she ran blindly through the school to the only place in it she had ever found comfort.

---

Troy ran into the locker room, first by an easy margin, although Chad was a close second, still ahead of the rest of the team. He went to his bag to grab a change of clothes, but instead paused and smiled when he saw that his school bag was there too, along with a small note with Gabriella's handwriting on it. Glancing around the room and making sure that no one in particular was watching, he opened the note and sat down on one of the benches around the edge of the room, smiling even more widely as he read the cute message. He looked up from the note and saw everyone staring at him and his stupid smile, and hastily wiped it off his face, slipping the note into his bag before someone asked to read it.

"What was that, man?" Chad asked, a scheming smile on his face.

"Nothing. Look dude, I gotta jet, see you guys later." And he quickly exited the room, fully aware that Chad knew who 'nothing' was and where he was going to find her.

Troy ran up the stairs leading to the rooftop garden two at a time, despite his heavy school bag and gym bag, but was met with a surprise when he reached the top. He saw a person approaching him and barely had time to drop his bags before Gabriella had thrown her arms around him and was holding him tightly around his neck. He ignored the slight difficulty to breathe he was having and hastened to pull his girlfriend closer by winding his arms around her waist. Slowly he walked forwards, lifting Gabriella off the ground to make sure she didn't trip and moving to behind where the stairs came up, just in case Chad decided to follow him. Suddenly he realised that his shoulder was wet with tears and he looked down at the girl with her head buried in his neck.

"Hey Gabi, what's wrong? What is it? Please tell me I didn't stuff up." Gabriella hiccupped softly and moved her head away from his neck, instead looking up at him.

"I'm hic sorry Troy… it's just hic something Sharpay said to me. It doesn't really hic matter… I'm fine." Troy looked down at her tear-stained face. She didn't look fine to him.

"You don't look like you're fine." He told her, brushing away a stray tear on her cheek. "What did Sharpay say?" Another tear dropped from her eye and Gabriella looked away from Troy.

"It's nothing… it doesn't matter…hic…" Her hiccups were slowing down as were her tears, but Troy still felt the need to stroke her wet cheeks with his thumbs.

"If you're upset it matters." He said definitely, still looking concerned as Gabriella looked up at him again.

"She said that you didn't like me. And that I was ugly. And that you'll dump me. She made it seem like she just knew." Troy was silent with shock, but quickly spoke when he saw Gabriella eyes widen as if she thought his silence meant that Sharpay's words were true.

"Of course not Gabi. None of those things are true, none of them. I love you okay, you know that, and I can't think of any situation that'd make me even consider dumping you. And as for you being ugly… we all know that Sharpay's idea of beauty isn't right, and this just proves it. You're the most beautiful girl I'll ever know; you always have been and you always will be." Gabriella smiled shyly, but she wasn't entirely happy yet.

"But you have to say that." She pointed out. "You're my boyfriend."

"So what, my opinion doesn't matter?" Gabriella shook her head quickly. "Exactly. What I think matters way more than what Sharpay thinks, so don't listen to her, what does she know anyway?" Gabriella giggled lightly and leant forward into Troy's arms again, resting her head against his neck.

"Thanks." She murmured softly, but loud enough so that she knew he could hear her.

"That's fine, anytime." Gabriella giggled again. "Now, as for Sharpay. What would you prefer I did, went and bashed her up, or told Chad to?" His tone was serious.

"Is it honestly necessary to bash her up?" Gabriella asked, wondering at how boys could think that such a trivial thing was the way to solve a problem.

"Yes. No one should ever say stuff like that to you."

"It's okay, don't worry about Sharpay, as long as you stay here with me I'll be fine." Troy grumbled into Gabriella's hair as he leant down and kissed it softly. "What?" she asked, wondering what he'd said.

"Oh, uh, nothing…" He felt her pull away and glare at him. "I just said that I'll deal with Sharpay tomorrow." He defended himself.

"No! No 'dealing with Sharpay'! Just leave her alone!" Gabriella said.

"You seriously don't want to punish her for being mean to you?" Troy, seemed sure that she'd figure out what a fantastic way of solving things bashing people up really was.

"Yes, I'm sure. Like I said, as long as you are here I'm okay. Got it?" Troy smiled.

"Got it." She smiled too and leant back against him, pressing gentle kisses on his shoulder and up his neck, stopping just below his lips.

"You promise you won't bash her up." She asked, her breath tickling his lips.

"Yep." He so badly wanted to just kiss her.

"Or hurt her in anyway."

"Yes." It was so tempting to just lean forward and engulf her lips in his, but he knew that she wasn't finished yet.

"Or give her any kind of punishment whatsoever for being mean to me."

"And calling you ugly." He couldn't help adding despite himself.

"Promise?" she arched her eyebrows and held her lips poised temptingly millimetres away from his, her hands now touching the bits of hair at the nape of his neck. He pushed his lips against hers as his answer, immediately trying to pry hers open with his tongue.

"Promise?" she repeated into the kiss, still not letting the kiss get any deeper.

"Yes I promise already." He whined and smiled as she obediently opened her lips and let him explore her mouth with his tongue. Neither noticed as Chad's hair appeared at the stairs, the rest of him following shortly afterwards and stared at them making out for a moment, before rolling his eyes and going back downstairs to wait for them once they'd finished. But he couldn't help smiling to himself at Troy's expression, at least one of them had everything that he wanted.

**Okay, I'm sorry to those people who i dedicated to for making it such a bad chapter, I honestly hated that, I really did. But if you hated it can you just say somethign a little more mellow like "the others were better" or "good luck next time"... and please do tell me if you didn't like it cos then I knwo hat my judgment is good and I shouldn't post unless if I'm not happy with it.**


	6. CALL, 3 TIMES, DAY

**Okay, slight change of dedication...**

_Dedicated to: first and foremost all of my First Time readers, it was looking at the stats for that that inspired me to write this (no I'm not kidding, it really was amazing to see how many people had read my story), tututooba (who left me an amzing comment on Just Friends, which was so nice and sweet to me) and scgirl-317 (because she also left a wonderful comment on First Time, she gave me great advice for writing and it has really helped me)_

**Even though I don't really know any of these people they are all so nice and flattering to me, I really do appreciate every single person who reads and/or reviews** **any of my stories. **

**P.S, I will g back to my normal dedications next chapter, but because of all the reviews I've been getting I was worried I'd never get to mention these people, and I really thought that they deserved a mention...**

_**CALL**_** me **_**3**__**TIMES**_** a **_**DAY **_**if he went away…**

Gabriella wandered down the empty street, trying to work out why she'd bothered leaving her house. It's not like she expected to see anyone she knew, least of all the person who she wanted to see most. She sighed as she turned into her street, turning out of Troy's… it seemed like much longer than 5 hours since she'd seen him at the airport leaving for Australia for a week to visit his grandparents.

She slowed down once her house came back into sight, she'd spent all day lying around inside, trying to forget that she wouldn't be seeing Troy for an entire week. Now that her house was in sight again she didn't particularly want to go back in, but, after pausing on her doorstep for a few minutes, her thoughts wavering between going inside and doing another circuit of her block, she knocked hard and waited fro her mother to let her in.

"Coming, Gabi!" her mother's familiar voice called out and Gabriella heard hurried footsteps. It seemed to take longed than usual for Ms. Montez to open the door, and once she had Gabriella knew why. Her mother was trying to hold the large home phone in one hand and unlock the door with that other, but her attempts weren't proving very successful, and Gabriella had to catch the phone when her mother dropped it in the process of pulling the door open wider. The teenager looked questioningly at her mother whilst handing back the phone, wondering who had called. She didn't want to seem rude, but people hardly ever called for her mother; it was almost always Troy calling for her, to chat about random stuff and exchange compliments and 'I love you' 's.

Gabriella shied away from all thoughts of Troy, she'd just gone on an hour and a half walk to rid her mind of him, she had to learn to cope for more than two hours without him. Just as Gabriella had reached the base of the stairs, about to place her foot on the bottom one, her mother called out to her.

"Oh, uh, Gabi! The phone's for you!" It seemed that in all of the confusion she hadn't remembered who the caller had been. Gabriella took the offered phone and began upstairs.

"Who is it?" she whispered, covering the mouthpiece so that the caller wouldn't know she'd ask. Her mum just gave a secretive smile and turned away. Gabriella was left with a feeling of uneasy anticipation, she so badly wanted ti to be who she thought it was, but she didn't want to get herself so excited about it that she'd be disappointed if it was Taylor or Kelsi. She rushed up the stairs two at a time and threw the door closed behind her when she got to her room. If it was Troy she would prefer that her mother didn't see any of the stupid expressions she'd make, or hear some of the slightly unsuitable things that she sometimes said by accident. It was so much more fun to tease Troy when he couldn't do anything to stop her.

She sat on her bed and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" Despite her less than shy thoughts, her voice still came out small and anxious; she so badly wanted to talk to him.

"Hey!" Troy's voice was as full of anticipation as hers, and sounded exactly te same as she remembered it.

"Troy! You have no idea how happy I am to talk to you-"

"You're right I don't, cause your happiness it way below mine."

"Is not! I'm so, so, soooooo glad to hear your voice, it feels like forever since five hours ago…" Gabriella couldn't help getting a little over-excited when she talked to him, then again, who could?

"Five hours, twenty-three minutes and forty… -seven seconds, actually."

"Oh…" Troy laughed, but Gabriella could hear that behind it, he really did miss her.

"Why weren't you picking up your mobile? I must have called it about a billion times!"

"Really?" She couldn't help being excited at the idea that Troy had called her that many times, after only five hours… and twenty-four minuets, he wasn't the only one counting. She stood and went to her desk, shuffling through the pieces of paper on it.

"What are doing?" Troy sounded amused from the other end of the phone.

"Looking for my mobile, I have to check how many times you really called me." Gabriella heard something fall onto the floor, and, looking down, realised it was her phone. She quickly bent down and picked it up, heading back to her bed.

"Okay, but just so you know, billions might have been an exaggeration. I did call you about 16 times though."

"About 16, hmm." Gabriella waited for her phone to turn on with mounting excitement. "Wrong, '23 missed calls'. I didn't know you missed me that much!" Troy laughed stiffly.

"I didn't know that I liked you that much either, I could swear I only called 16 times." Gabriella pouted to herself and scrolled through the calls, most were from Troy, but a few were from her mum and Taylor.

"Oh… yeah, only 16 are from you. Thanks for caring so much!" her tone was indignant but she knew Troy knew she was joking.

"Yeah, well, 16's still a lot."

"I know." Both of them could feel the fluffiness in their conversation, and both felt heartened by it.

All Gabriella could hear was Troy's even breathing. She flopped down on her bed and lay there, just listening to him breathe. It felt like as close to bliss as was possible without Troy actually being there.

"What are you thinking about right now?" Gabriella wasn't really worried about is answer, and fully expected some joking boy thing, she just wanted to hear his voice and know that he was just as happy wasting his time talking to her and she was talking to him.

"You." Gabriella giggled. "No, seriously. I'm thinking about what you're doing right now. Where you are. Probably on your bed, maybe sitting at your desk. I'm wondering if its sunny or rainy where you are, you always like the rain when you're alone. I'm wondering if you're alone or if maybe you're having a party cause I'm not there to use up all your time. Or maybe your mum's there too, say hi to her for me, she's always been so great with us, regardless of all the things she's caught us doing…" Gabriella laughed again, maybe that explained why she loved Troy so much. He was so perfect for her, he always knew what she wanted to hear and he always wanted to say it, or maybe he didn't want to, but he said it for her sake. "What about you?"

"Um, I don't know if I can quite measure up to what you said. But I'll try." Troy smiled to himself. "I'm, uh, thinking about how you like Australia. It's supposed to be really warm there, isn't it like spring? I'm thinking about what you're wearing, hopefully you're not wearing that disgusting green shirt that you love so much… or maybe it's better that you do cause it makes you look worse than usual, so you won't have all of those Australian girls throwing themselves at you." Troy chuckled. "And… I'm thinking about where you are. Are you in your hotel room, or are you like sunbaking on Bondi Beach… that'd be cool. As long as there aren't many girls! I'm alos thinking about what we'll do when you get back… will we go out or spend the night inside… not my room, please, mum has caught us enough times to last a lifetime." Gabriella trailed off. She so badly wished Troy was right there with her.

"Woah… we've both got it so bad for each other…"

"I know, isn't it pathetic?"

"Actually I think it's kinda sweet that you're so into me." Gabriella laughed, and sat up when she heard her mum calling her from downstairs.

"Uh, Troy?"

"Hmm?"

"I think I have to go." Her voice sounded sad, as if hanging up meant she was never going to see or talk to her again.

"Okay, sure. I'll call you tomorrow." Gabriella moaned, she wanted to talk to him sooner.

"Tomorrow?"

"What about later, like, when it's night for you?"

"Really?"

"Yep, sure thing. Even if that's at 3 am for me." Gabriella smiled.

"Okay. You promise that you'll call?"

"Even if I've been kidnapped and they're holding me ransom."

"Okay. Bye, love you."

"Love you too." Troy lowered his phone with a tinge of sadness. As beautiful as Australia was, he really only wanted to be with Gabi. Remembering his promise to her, he looked at his watch. If it was 7:00am in Australia, it was 5:00pm the previous day in Albuquerque… that meant that when she went to bed (11:00pm) it would be 11:00am for him… okay, he was going to have to remember that.

---

At 9 o'clock sharp Troy held down his first speed dial number. Gabriella's phone rang once before she picked up.

"Troy?" He smiled at her reaction.

"You thought I wouldn't call?"

"Well… it's just, time differences and… you know."

"Gabi, it's like midday here, you're the one who's being inconvenienced by all this."

"Oh…" she sounded confused and slightly annoyed. How did Troy managed to outsmart her? "Wait, but that means that when you called before it was really early."

"Not really, 7ish."

"Oh." Troy heard her try to suppress a yawn.

"You're tired."

"Am not!"

"Gabi, I'm your boyfriend, okay, I of all people would know how to tell you're tired." Troy hadn't really thought about the comment, and a few people were staring at him on the crowded beach, although he wasn't sure if that was because of his comment or something else. Probably something else because most of the starers were teenage girls.

"Ew! Troy, that's… probably right, but ew, not something that you talk about at midday."

"I'll talk about it any day."

"Troy!"

"What?"

"…" Troy laughed.

"What?" he repeated.

"It's just… not something that we discuss over the phone, okay?" Troy nodded, still laughing.

"Yeah, okay." There was silence for a while. How do you recover from a conversation like that? Gabriella mused to herself. She yawned again.

"You should go to sleep."

"But I don't want to." Gabriella knew she was whining, but when she got tired she got whiny.

"Go on, I'll call you again in the morning."

"Really?"

"Why don't you ever believe me when I say that I'll call."

"Because of the time difference. It'll be… 11:00pm for you."

"So? I'm up later than that usually."

"Yeah, but you're also normally lying in my bed at this time… don't elaborate on that topic, it wasn't the point I was trying to make. I mean, aren't you jet lagged or something?"

"Hmm… yeah, but I'll still call."

"Yay!" she yawned again.

"Good, now go to sleep, you can spen dall night dreaming about what it'd be like if I was there with you, okay?"

"Okay! But there wouldn't be much sleeping if you were…"

"I thought you didn't want to talk about that?"

"I don't, goodnight!"

"'Night, I love you."

"I…yawn… love you… yawn… too." Troy chuckled and waited for Gabriella to hang up, usually she waited for him, but she was obviously really tired. He felt like he could hardly wait the 12 hours before he could call her again. But he'd have to wait, and he was willing to wait, after all, what was 12 hours to spending an entire lifetime with the only girl he wanted?

**Okay, so i know that was only 2 phone calls, but he'd called her 16 times before, and I'm really bad at phone convos, even when I'm talking onb the phone I usually end up singing to my dog (I know tha sounds weird) and whoecer I'm talking to just has twinkle twinkle little Trix (my dog) blasting out of their phone... so I hope you can understand I why I didn't do any more phone calls.**

**P.S, the time difference in this story is completely true, Aus is 14 hrs ahead of Albuquerque, I checked.**

**P.P.S, if you're Aussie (like me) then you might get some of the fun y references in there, like hopefully Bondi Beach won't have any girls at it... never happened excpet when it was closed of for APEC... and that day earleir this year when there was a tsunami warning... but yeah, sooooooo unlikely.**


	7. GOSSIP, SMILE, AGREE

**Okay, I wrote this really really quickly tonight so that all of you American could have it in time... so be grateful!**

_Dedicated to mysupermanwillcome because they reviewed sooooo long ago and sooooo many times and I felt bad for not dedicating to them (her? cos it says superman?) yet aslo cos she said that chapter 3 made her laugh, .Charmzi. because thye had a silly grin on their face which i thought was really sweet and joanthereloaded because you're not the only person who dreams of this kinda stuff in relationships._

**Let me **_**GOSSIP **_**to him and just **_**SMILE **_**and **_**AGREE**_** with everything I said…**

Gabriella couldn't help being excited. Her favourite band was in town and they were performing on Saturday.

"And then Taylor told me and I was like screaming for hours, but seriously I couldn't, I mean… would you honestly believe that they'd bother to come somewhere like here?" Troy just nodded and smiled to himself. He'd been in his girlfriend's room for about two hours now, and the whole time she'd been going on and on about whatever band she loved (it changed every month).

"Gabi, Albuquerque isn't that small, I mean, we're on major world maps."

"Yeah, but so is Sydney… no ones even been there, in fact, no one even knows what country that place is in." Troy laughed; she had a point there.

"That's not the point…"

"I know!" Troy looked at her and raised his eyebrows, had she actually noticed his sarcasm? "Seriously, how did we get talking about Sydney when I need to decide what to wear and everything for Saturday!" She was pacing her room, frantically picking up the clothes littering the floor and throwing them into piles- one pile for clean clothes and one pile for clothes that needed to be washed. The washing pile was significantly bigger.

"Gabi, the concerts not until Saturday, you have ages to decide all of that girly stuff."

"Saturday! Ages! Troy, look. I've loved this band for like… ever! I cannot just take ten minutes to decide what to wear." She'd finished throwing her clothes and now moved on to the mess that made up her desktop. Troy just sat there smirking and fiddling with one of the toys on her bed, trying to work out if it was a sheep or a dog… he was beginning to lean towards sheep, but he was still unsure.

"You know, not all guys just throw random clothes on in ten minutes." He pointed out, not at all intimidated by the glare he earned because he'd changed the subject again.

"Yeah… right." Gabriella looked him up and down. He was sprawled on her bed, holding a toy horse that she'd gotten when she was 6, wearing a light blue t-shirt and baggy black jeans. Sure, he didn't look bad… but the jeans were a little crumpled and she was positive he'd been wearing the same shirt a few days ago… she hoped he'd washed it in between uses.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" He sat up, still with the toy sheep/dog in his hand and opened his arms wide so that Gabriella could see his entire torso clearly.

"Nothing." She answered quickly, not even looking at him. He 'hmph'ed and lay back down, tossing what he'd decided was a cross-breed over his shoulder and back on the bed. "Do you know what this was for?" She held up a piece of paper with lots of complicated-looking diagrams on it up so he could see it. Troy shrugged,

"Science?" he guessed.

"Oh yeah! I remember doing this! It was when we were learning about the properties of uranium and the energy conversions that take place in it so that we can use it for power." Troy stared blankly and nodded, watching her slide it into a particular file in the filing cabinet next to her desk.

"So. Anyway. You were talking about-"

"Saturday." Gabriella interrupted him. "I know. Hey, do you actually even know how I first found out that they were coming? Cause Taylor says she told me but I could swear Chad told me a website and I found it off there. But Chad says that he told me a website that Taylor had told him about, and he said that he didn;'t think it had anything to do with their touring dates… do you think maybe I read in the paper?" troy opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again when he realised the question was rhetorical.

"Because I don't think they'd put the concert date in the paper as early as I found out about it which was about 2 months ago… I think. Cause I didn't actually care about it then, don't know why, but mum says it was in the paper a while ago and I didn't even notice, can you imagine that? Of course it'd have noticed if it said it in the paper!" Troy just nodded and smiled as Gabriella continued her rant, still shuffling through the stuff on her desk, putting papers in the filing cabinet and other stuff into containers or drawers.

"But you didn't even like them a month ago." Immediately after he'd said it Troy realised that it was the wrong thing to say. Gabriella glared at him again and turned away from her desk, walking into her bathroom and organising stuff in there. "What? You didn't!"

"Yeah I did. I just didn't appreciate their talent as much cause I'd never heard their good songs… I'd only heard the really bad ones." Troy nodded as she emerged from the bathroom, carrying a heap of towels and dumping on the washing pile of clothes.

"What if they only play the bad ones at the concert?" Gabriella paused, glancing at Troy with an annoyed expression before hurrying back into the bathroom. "I'm just saying!"

"They won't. They know which songs people like and which ones they don't. They'll play the ones that make them more money, that is, the good ones." She said it in very 'duh' tone, which made Troy's smirk even bigger.

"But everyone who's there has already payed, so it makes no difference if you like the songs or not." Gabriella came out of the bathroom again and sat down on the bed next to him.

"Thank you," she said suddenly, surprising him.

"For what?"

"Just going along with my obsessing and gossiping and everything. There aren't many guys who'd do that."

"It's not like I have anything that I'd rather do than sit here listening to you… except possibly sit hear and do something besides listen to you." Gabriella smiled and kissed his mouth softly, rolling over so that she was straddling his lap. Troy smiled into the kiss and brought both his hands to her waist, one grabbing the toy from earlier.

"I know that this is off topic, and I know how you hate things that are off topic," Gabriella laughed and shifted her weight so that she was sitting on Troy's knees, still with a leg on either side of his legs.

"Hmm?"

"What is this?" He pulled moved one if his hands and held the toy between them, both of them looking down at it. Gabriella giggled and took it from him, stroking its mane softly.

"It's a horse." Troy gaped.

"How is that a horse?"

"Mane here, tail there, head, body… you know your anatomy." She threw it back onto the bed, looking back at Troy.

"I know yours better." Gabriella smirked and let Troy pulled her in again for another kiss, this one more passionate and suggestive than the last. Just as She felt his tongue graze her lips, Gabriella's phone began ringing, playing her favourite song that the band sang. She jumped off Troy's lap and off the bed, running over to her phone and answering it quickly. Troy sighed and picked up the toy again, still having difficulties in working out how it was a horse. It still looked like a sheep to him. Then again, if Gabriella said it was a horse then it was… he'd always wanted someone who was always right; and he had that person.

**Lol, who realised that i got away without having to name the band for that whole chapter, i thought that was pretty smart of me. Alos about the uranium thing... it was the most complicated soundign thing that i could think of at 11:00pm, which isn't that late but still, night is a time for reading not writing... that's also whyt here are so many spelling mistakes (probably, i didn't actually check properly).**


	8. SING, MOMENTS

**Okay, so this was actually supposed to be chpter 3, but it took me ages to get the exact right song and atmosphere and everything, so i hope it reaches the standard.**

_Dedicated to mars.x, ilyilyx3 and i heart hairspray because all of their first reviews had smiley emoticons! And I know I said that it is only 3 dedications per chapter, but this is a shout-out to my friend Tegan cos of the song, we both pretend that we hate the singer but I know that she really loves him!_

_**SING **_**to me at random moments…**

The mood during the road trip to the coast had been loud and excited; the trip back was silent and sleepy. Troy was barely awake at the wheel, and that only thing keeping him awake was the constant music from the radio and Gabriella's rhythmic breathing beside him. Chad and Taylor were curled up together in the backseat, and it was impossible to tell whose arm was whose.

Troy started when he felt a hand touch his that was resting on Gabriella's knee, and smiled at her when he realised that it was her hand and that she'd woken up.

"Hey."

"Hey." She yawned and leant over so that her head was resting on his shoulder. She squeezed the hand that she was holding and rubbed up and down his arm with the other, happy that for once that entire day they weren't being disturbed Chad seemed to have made it his personal mission that Troy and Gabriella weren't allowed to be alone together for more than a second without supervision from him. And Sharpay had thought his idea was hilarious so she was in on it too.

"How much longer until we're home?" Gabriella asked her voice muffled by his shoulder and neck where her mouth was. Troy shrugged.

"I don't really know, it took us about three or four hours to get here, and we've only been driving for two." Gabriella sighed, and turned up the radio slightly as a song ended. Troy laughed when one of her leats favourite songs came on.

"Can we change it?" she moaned, reaching for the dial. Troy smirked and shook his head, batting her hand back. "Troy!" He turned it up more, he didn't particularly like the song either, but it was fun to annoy his girlfriend.

"Don't lie, you love this song." Gabriella moved he head off his shoulder and gaped at him as he just continued smirking.

"Ew, no way, it's so corny." Troy glanced at her expression, she was trying to suppress looking faintly happy at the radio's choice of song.

"What if I sing along?" Gabriella snorted with laughter.

"Troy, I'm sure you're a fantastic singer," her expression didn't look as sure as her words, but she was trying. "But seriously, singing as well as this probably isn't as easy as you think…" Troy recognised the challenge in her voice. He shrugged just as the lyrics began.

"_I don't want another pretty face,_

_I don't want just anyone to hold,_

_I don't want my love to go waste,_

_I want you and your Beautiful Soul._

_You're the one I wanna chase,_

_You're the one I wanna hold,_

_I won't let another minute go to waste,_

_I want you and you're Beautiful Soul."_ Gabriella was speechless, sure, he was a little off tune, but considering he'd never sung before (at least not to her knowledge) he was amazing. Troy smiled smugly and continued.

"_I know, that you, are something special,_

_To you, I'd be, always faithful,_

_I want, to be, what you always needed,_

_Then I hope you'll see, the heart in me._

"_I don't want another pretty face,_

_I don't want just anyone to hold,_

_I don't want my love to go waste,_

_I want you and your Beautiful Soul._

_You're the one I wanna chase,_

_You're the one I wanna hold,_

_I won't let another minute go to waste,_

_I want you and you're Beautiful Soul."_

"_Your Beautiful Soul…_

_Yeah…" _Both of them were surprised, but Troy tried not to show it as he continued.

"_You might, need time, to think it over,_

_But I'm, just fine, moving forward,_

_I'll ease, your mind, if you give me the chance,_

_I will never make you cry, c'mon lets try._

"_I don't want another pretty face,_

_I don't want just anyone to hold,_

_I don't want my love to go waste,_

_I want you and your Beautiful Soul._

_You're the one I wanna chase,_

_You're the one I wanna hold,_

_I won't let another minute go to waste,_

_I want you and you're Beautiful Soul." _Gabriella tried to keep her expression stiff and blank, but it was amazing to hear those words coming out of her boyfriend's mouth, even if he did sing them. The singer on the radio was completely drowned out by him; or maybe that was just to Gabriella's ears.

"_Am I crazy, for wanting you,_

_Baby, do think you could want me too,_

_I don't want to waste your time…_

_Do you see things, the way I do,_

_I just wanna know that you feel it too,_

_There is nothing left to hide…_

"_I don't want another pretty face,_

_I don't want just anyone to hold,_

_I don't want my love to go waste,_

_I want you and your Beautiful Soul._

_You're the one I wanna chase,_

_You're the one I wanna hold,_

_I won't let another minute go to waste,_

_I want you and you're Beautiful Soul."_

"_I don't want another pretty face,_

_I don't want just anyone to hold,_

_I don't want my love to go waste,_

_I want you and your Beautiful Soul._

"_Your Beautiful Soul…_

_Yeah…_

"_Oh…_

_Yeah…_

_Your Beautiful Soul…_

_Yeah…"_ The song faded out into silence and another song started, but to Troy and Gabriella there was nothing besides the echoing silence after the song. The car stopped as Troy pulled in off the road; both of them still feeling like the only things in the world were each other.

"Woah…" Gabriella said it almost inaudibly, but Troy heard.

"Sorry, I know I wasn't-" he was cut off by her expression.

"Troy, that was amazing." He smiled shyly, and turned off the radio.

"Thanks. I meant it." Now it was her turn to look shy.

Chad and Taylor were stirring in the backseat.

Troy and Gabriella's eyes locked, blue to brown, cobalt to chocolate, light to dark. The noise of the cars passing by on the highway was drowned out in their depth. Their lips met softly, although neither was conscious of leaning in. They kissed softly as Gabriella's hands moved around Troy's neck and Troy's crept around her slim waist. They separated softly, and considered each other. Their smiles were honest and loving.

Gabriella shifted out of her seat and onto his lap, Troy pulled her closer and their lips met again. Neither wanted the moment to stop, and the words of the song were still being sung in their kiss… I want you and your Beautiful Soul.

**Hmm, I personally adored that, but then again i love the song so that could be why. I'd just like to mention how my mum RUINED the mood that i was in after writing that (all fluffy and relaxed) by yelling at me to open the door for her and clean up the backyard and tunr off my computer and do something useful.**


	9. STUFFED ANIMALS, DUMB, KISS, MILLION

**Okay, just a warning, but this chapter is a little bit more itense than the others... and I mean like t-rated intense-ness, so here's your warning. Also, with my dedications, I'm still up to people who reviewed chapter 5, so I'm sorry if I haven't dedicated to you yet even thoguh you reviewed, but I promise that every revier will get a dedication, even if that means inventing extra chapters so that I can have enough to dedicate, which byt eh way I'd love to do cause this is so much fun and really relaxing to write. Also, if peopel review specifically on the chapter, I'll be more likely to dedicate to them the next capter than if thye just say 'great chapter' or 'love your story', but I'm sayign don't say that, it's just tat if you do you may not be dedicate dto immediately.**

**I'm sorry that was soooo long, I just needed to tell everyone all of those things...**

_Dedicated to fictacious-thejunkie because she is absolutely correct, regardless of what anyone says, deep down every girl adores that song; zaccys-baby-v because she thinks this story rocks (how naive... jks, i actually meant thnx!) and zv-forever becasue she thinks that all of the Troyella fluff is adorbale and that in this Troy always acts like a great boyfriend, i agree, really umlikely (jks again, I'm in a particularly sarcastic mood right now, sorry)_

**throw****_STUFFED ANIMALS_**** at me if I acted **_**DUMB**_**, then **_**KISS**_** me a ****_MILLION _times****…**

"Troy!" Gabriella whined when he pulled away and flopped down on the bed next to her.

"Hm?" he panted, trying to get his breath back after their exhausting make out session.

"Why did you stop?" Try laughed and sat up, looking down at the girl lying beside him. Gabriella had a fake pout on her face, which she knew he could barely resist.

"Cause I have to go. Come on, it's nearly lunch time and you still haven't gotten out of bed."

"We still haven't got out of bed," she heavily emphasised the 'we' and sat up too, leaning her head on his shoulder from behind. "And maybe there's a reason for that…" Her lips just touched his ear as she spoke, and when he turned to look at her she gave him a seductive smirk and lay down on the bed again. He still stared at her.

"Gabi, you can't seriously not want to get out of bed all day?" She shrugged ruining the seductive looked and rolled over so her back was to her boyfriend. "Ouch…" he muttered, and swung his legs over the side of the double bed, looking away from her again and immediately feeling her eyes on the back of his head.

"Are you going to have a shower?" she asked cautiously, her eyes fixed on his jaw line, just under his ear from where she was laying. Troy shook his head."

"Nah, why?" He picked his shirt up off the carpet and pulled it over his head.

"Cause you might be sweaty." She watched in disappointment as his bare back disappeared under his white t-shirt. Troy chuckled and scanned the room for his shoes, locating them near the door. He couldn't even remember how they got there… maybe he took them off before her mum left…

"Nup." He glanced at his girlfriend behind him who had now rolled over to face him was looking at him with raised eyebrows. "It's all dried by now."

"Hmph, lucky you." Gabriella shifted so she was on her back again and Troy smiled at her, but when she pouted again ti turned into a smirk. "What?"

"You think you're just irresistible like that, don't you?" Gabriella gaped at him, maybe he hadn't intended it to sound sarcastic, but it did.

"Get lost." Gabriella huffed and sat up too, causing the sheets to fall gracefully off her body; Troy was watching her reflection in the window. He sighed and stood, heading towards the door of her room, trying not to look back at her as he heard her get off the bed and look for some clothes to wear over her tank top and mini shorts that she wore as pyjamas. He found his shoes near the door and slipped them on, turning to look at her once he was ready to leave.

"Gabi…"

"I said get lost."

"Gabriella…"

"Troy."

"C'mon babe, what is it?"

"You were rude to me."

"When?" Gabriella rolled her eyes and turned away.

"You never were, I was lying, don't worry. I'm going to take a shower, don't bother waiting, I'll call you if I want to talk or anything." She said in a monotone and went into her bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. Troy continued to frown, why was she so angry?

He stood silently in the doorway, trying to decide if he should leave and call her in a few hours, or wait for her to finish her shower, even though he knew she might be in there for half an hour. He sighed and walked back over to her bed, sitting down on it. Sometimes loving someone felt like a curse. The shower turned on the bathroom, Troy groaned and lay back on the bed, closing his eyes.

Gabriella turned the water on full-blast and stepped under it straight away. The hot water woke her up fully and mixed with the dry sweat coating her slim body. She turned the cold water on and felt the heat lose its intensity until it was only lukewarm. The water crashed down on her head and her body, each drop feeling like a bullet hitting her skin. Her muscles were tense from staying in the same position for too long, with a start she calculated that she'd been lying under Troy kissing him for four hours… since 8:30 that morning. She shivered despite the warm water, at the moment her loving Troy felt more like a curse than a blessing.

Troy felt around next to him for one of the many toys that Gabriella kept scattered over her bed. His hand brushed something with soft fur and he picked it up, holding it in front of his face. What was it? The soft grey 'fur' seeped between his fingers and each fine strand was delicately curled. He decided it must be dog… probably. He dropped it onto his chest and watched it rise and fall as he breathed.

Gabriella stepped out from under the water and grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the bathroom counter. Turning it over and squeezing it into her hand she quickly stepped back under the water, feeling weirdly exposed standing naked in the middle of the bathroom. As she massaged the shampoo into her hair, she vaguely wondered where Troy was. Had he left her house or was he waiting downstairs for her? Maybe he was sitting in his truck outside hoping that she was going to follow him. But she wasn't, he'd been rude to her and maybe it was just lack of sleep (sure, she'd been in her bed for ages, but there hadn't been much sleeping) or the amount of paint hat she was unknowingly in that had made her angry a him, but she wasn't going to apologise now; she had way too much pride for that.

Troy flicked the toy off his chest and watched how far across the room it flew, laughing as it fell lamely to the floor about a metre away from the bed. He moved his foot around trying to find the toy, and when his foot bumped against it he kicked it, hard. The ball of grey fluff went flying across the floor and crashed with a dull 'pumph' against the bathroom door. Troy sat up when the noise form the running shower suddenly stopped.

Gabriella stepped out of the shower and onto a towel that had been dropped on the floor yesterday. She shrugged and let her body drip onto the already damp towel, while quickly grabbing another one and drying herself. She searched around on the floor for her bra, but remembered that she'd been wearing her tank top and hadn't been wearing one underneath. She let out a frustrated growl and pulled on her underpants, figuring she could get changed in her room. Wrapping a towel around herself she twisted as much water as she could out of her hair, then turned to open the door.

Troy was staring avidly at the closed bathroom door, until suddenly it opened and Gabriella appeared wearing nothing but a towel wrapped tightly around her (for all he could see).

"TROY!"

"Gabi…" Both their voices sounded at the same time, but Gabriella's usually soft voice drowned out Troy's pathetic tone.

"What are you still doing here? I told you to get lost!" Gabriella had completely lost her head; she was yelling at the top of her voice and was completely blind to her boyfriend's stuttered remarks. In her anger, she bent down and picked up the toy that Troy had kicked to outside the bathroom door earlier.

Seeing his girlfriend aim her weapon at his head, Troy grabbed another one of her toys and threw it at her. It hit her stomach and bounced onto the floor in front of her. She glared at her boyfriend who just glared back.

"Did you just throw that at me?"

"No Gabi, it was the Tooth Fairy." Troy answered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Gabriella aimed her toy at Troy again, but another one came hurtling at her. The ginger cat skipped off her shoulder lightly, but despite the lack of pain she was even angrier.

"Troy, stop it!" She yelled as another toy came flying at her, the horse hitting her leg.

"Tell me why you're angry!"

"No!" she let her weapon fly, pegging it angrily at his head, but troy just ducked and it bounced off the window behind him. He stood up with another three or four toys filling his arms and took tiny steps towards Gabriella, ready to throw more toys if the need arose.

Gabriella picked up the three toys that Troy had thrown at her and held two in her left hand, holding the third in her right hand in preparation for the next round of the battle. She also began edging towards Troy.

The two met in the middle, both glaring at each other and holding soft toys. The next-door neighbour could see into Gabriella's room and suppressed a laugh at the sight, to very mature people, looking like squabbling children.

Troy bent down and placed his ammunition on the ground next to him, straightening again and raising his hands in defeat. Gabriella stood still for a moment, shifting on the balls of her feet, fighting with two very extreme and unexplainable urges. Hurt him, or kiss him.

Before she even realised that she'd done it, Gabriella had dropped her three toys to the ground and flung her arms around Troy's neck, crashing her lisp against his. He was surprised for a second, but almost instantly dropped his hands to around her waist and pulled her closer. Their tongues battled for control as Troy lifted his girlfriend off the ground, her feet dangling in the air at his ankles. She quickly reacted to his moved and wrapped her legs around hid waist, tyring to get rid off any gaps between their bodies.

Turning around, Troy backed Gabriella up against the nearest wall and moved one of hands further down her waist to hold her and the other to her neck, pushing back her hair so that his lips could attack the exposed skin. She moaned and tangled her hands in his hair, pulling desperately at it as he sucked on a sensitive spot. He turned again and dropped her down onto the bed, falling on top of her once she had arranged her towel so that it was still covering her top half, although it had already ridden up her legs and was exposing her underwear.

The couple continued kissing for a long time, but the neighbour had already turned away, unable to fathom the aspects of the two's relationship. One minute they were acting like children and the next… not like children. The middle-aged woman sighed, well, at least they both got everything that they wanted.

**If that last paragraph was confusing it was from the neighbour's point of view, she was referring to T&G's relationship... just in case you didn't get that, i know i didn't make it very clear. Weirdly enough I liked writing that chapter, it's fun to talk about people actijg on impulse, cause life would be soooo much easier (and proabably shorter) if everyone did. Interesting convo to have I think... hmm.**


	10. FUN, LAUGH

**Woah, that took me ages to write and it is now 11:30 on a school night... whoops... so you better APPRECIATE IT!!! (lol, jks)**

_Dedcated to DuMbBlOnDe2010 because she thanked me and I'm not sure why... (i know that's really pathetic, but i checked and i don't think i dedicated to her... hmm, if you know please tell me why she thanked me... I feel lost and confused...), HSMLUVER218 because, and I quote, "I loved it! In fact I loved them all!" now that's kindness... and insanity... totally joking, sorry and Scared-Of-Love because they said that this story was amzing (how nice is that!? it made me feel all warm and fuzzy!!!... I'm in a tired mood right now, so I'm really hypo...) also cause I love that name, it's very deep..._

**Make **_**FUN**_** of me, just to make me **_**LAUGH**_**…**

"You know I love you, right?" Troy asked quickly, pulling back for a moment.

"Mmhm…" Gabriella mumbled as he started kissing her again. They both looked up when there was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Who is it?" Troy rolled off Gabriella and they both stared at the door.

"Chad."

"Oh, just a minute." Troy heard Chad snort in amusement from outside the door as he begun counting the time.

"One, two, three, four…" Gabriella slid off the bed and threw Troy one of the many shirts littering the floor, pulling her top down a little as she did. Troy put is shirt on quickly and ran his hand through his hair, making it look fashionably messy rather than as if Gabriella's hands had been running through it for the last 15 minutes.

"Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen…" Chad's counting still came from the door. Gabriella found her hair elastic on Troy's bedside table and rushed to the mirror to fix it up. Troy pulled up the sheets on his bed so they looked a little less dishevelled and flattened them lightly.

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one…" Gabriella attempted to brush her hair without a brush and pulled it into a rough ponytail, trying desperately to get rid off all of the bumps that she'd recently straightened out. Troy glanced at Gabriella before walking over to her door.

"Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixt-" Troy opened the door and raised his eyebrows at Chad.

"Looking forward to catching us weren't you?"

"Mildly…" Chad answered and peered into the room behind Troy. "Uh, where's your girlfriend?" Gabriella came rushing out of the room and stoped next to Troy, grabbing his hand tightly.

"Right here, I was just fixing my hair." She explained and began out of the room, barging past Chad and pulling Troy with her.

"We can tell…" Troy muttered, as Chad closed the door again and followed them downstairs. Both the boys smirked at Gabriella's expression of fake-hurt.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked accusingly once they'd reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Nothing…" Troy said, and smirked as he let go of her hand and raced Chad outside. Gabriella rolled her eyes and walked after the boys. By the time she's reached Chad's waiting car, he'd already started it and was impatiently waiting for her.

"C'mon Gabriella, we're meeting the gang in like, 5 minutes!" She nodded and hurried to the car; ducking through the door she sat down in the back seat and slammed the door closed behind her. "Hey! Gentle with the car! This thing cost a fortune." Chad said protectively as the car rumbled out of the driveway, jerking every so often.

"Chad? Is the stopping and starting cause you can't drive or cause the car can't?" Troy asked innocently, holding back a laugh as Chad glared angrily at him.

"Neither, the driveway's stuffed up." Troy drew his expression back in mock hurt.

"Don't dis the drive, it's not her fault…" Gabriella raised her eyebrows.

"The driveway has a gender now?" Troy shrugged as Chad laughed.

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Oh, Gabs, looks like you've got some competition for Troy's affections…" Troy turned away mysteriously and waved at the driveway disappearing out the back window, blowing a kiss to it before turning back a gaping Gabriella.

"What?" he asked, as if thinking it was perfectly normal to wave goodbye and blow kisses to driveways.

"You are so weird…" she muttered and shifted in her seat so she was further away from him.

"You think I'm weird?" Troy's tone was incredulous. Gabriella shrugged in response.

"Who's the one who needs to do her little 'brrr' and 'ma' vocal exercises every time before we sing?"

"Uh, dude, that's Sharpay…" Chad pointed out from the front seat.

"Oh no, not just Sharpay." Gabriella looked at her knees and blushed.

"It helps warm up my voice!" she defended herself, her cheeks a little bit flushed.

"Okay, so then why do you need to do your homework in a certain order every afternoon?" Gabriella's blush deepened, but Chad didn't seem to get it.

"Duh, you do that stuff that's due first before the stuff that isn't due for a week. Come on man, even I do that." Troy just shook his head and looked at Gabriella.

"I always do science first, then English, then maths, geography, French, history… etc. etc." she murmured into her hands that she'd been covering her mouth with in embarrassment.

"Why?" Chad was obviously still unable to grasp the point of the conversation.

"Cause she's weird." Troy summarised and Gabriella let out a hiccup-type laugh.

"It just makes sense to me doing it in that order!" She moved her hands away from her face to make that comment, and then buried her head in her knees, shaking with silent laughter.

"The flaws of an intelligent brain…" Troy muttered, shaking his head in mock-disapproval.

"Yeah, okay Gabs, there is something seriously wrong with you." Gabriella lifted her head from her lap and laughter harder, falling onto Troy when Chad turned a corner sharply. The laughing stopped abruptly as Troy and Gabriella's eyes met, both twinkling mischievously. Chad glanced in the rear-view mirror, worried by the sudden silence between the pair in the back of his car; all he could see was the top of Troy's head, looking down at something on his lap.

"You people in the back, no getting up to anything naughty back there… keep it PG-13 please." He said quickly, not the least bit worried about embarrassing them and still trying to see where Gabriella was.

"No probs man, we'll keep it clean." Troy answered, smirking down at Gabriella, whose eyes were shining with tears of laughter, giving them a cheekily seductive gleam. "Or at least… mostly clean…" he murmured to his girlfriend who giggled silently on his lap and wound one of her arms around his neck, the other resting against his chest.

Troy shifted a little so that Gabriella's seatbelt wasn't digging into her side as much, and slid one of his hands down to her waist, the other beginning to stroke her newly straight hair.

"If I can't see Gabs it isn't clean." Chad attempted to stop them again from the front seat, not liking the inaudible whispers and sounds of skin brushing skin coming from the backseat but unable to turn around and see what was happening because he had to watch the road.

"Don't worry about Gabi, I'm keeping her out of trouble." Troy smirked as he glanced up at the back of Chad's head again, then back down at his girlfriend who raised her eyebrows at him.

"Keeping me out of trouble are you?" she asked sweetly, fluttering her eyelids at him innocently.

"Well we wouldn't want you to get hurt would we?" Troy whispered back. Dipping his head to her so that his lips brushed over her forehead.

"Or dirty, right?" Her dark eyes twinkled at his and her hand on his chest started fingering small circles lightly through his shirt.

"Maybe dirty is okay," he decided, pressing his lips to hers before she could talk back.

Gabriella responded to the kiss immediately, pulling Troy closer to her. They kissed as silently as possible, tyring not to alert Chad to their actions, but finding it difficult to resist going any deeper. Eventually Troy pulled away, from lack of breath more than anything else, and smiled down at his girlfriend.

"You really are weird aren't you?" he asked, and Gabriella pouted in answer. "In a good way I mean." He added quickly to reassure her, but giving it away a little by smirking slightly. She hit his arm and sat up again, fixing her hair and top as was usual procedure after kissing Troy.

For the rest of the trip they sat rigidly in their seats, trying hard not to look at each other. When finally Chad pulled up at Jason's place, he quickly got out, leaving the keys in the ignition for troy or Gabriella to lock the car with. The couple glanced at each other, then away again, and then back at each other. In unison they shifted towards one another and locked their lips together in mildly heated kiss.

They pulled away when air began a necessity, and took to straight at each other guiltily. Just as Gabriella began turning away to open her door, Troy grabbed her arm softly. "Gabriella, no matter how weird you act, you'll always be everything that I want."

**I know the end was sotr of confusing, but I'm running out of ways to keep that phrase/something similar at the end of every chapter but have it indicated ina different way... I aslo knwo that their actions there were sort fo mood-swingy and a little overly-impulsive, but they were in a hypo mood like me right now, so it made sense when I wrote it (I changed tense halfway through thet sentence... hmm)**


	11. PARK, ARMS, WAIST, HUG

**Okay, I really HATE this one, but all of these people were aksing me to update and I felt bad cause I was home today anyway... kinda. Actually I just moved house, as in I was helpign carry boxes all day today... not that anyone needs to know that. So, as I said, I hate this and please tell em if yo do too because that will prove that what i think about my writing is correct which would be useful. I am so sorry to the people who I'm dedicating this chapter to, but I really do mean what I say int he dedication.**

_Dedicated to xoxstargazerxox because she reviewed all (/most) of my stories and was really nice about all of them, heebeejeebees because she has reviewed so many times and is always really nice and xdude.im.FAMOUSx because there were 4 'really''s in their review!_

**Take me to the **_**PARK**_** and put his **_**ARMS **_**around my **_**WAIST**_** and **_**HUG**_** me the whole time…**

"Are you coming? Cause you know I invited you specially." Troy said, watching Gabriella's back closely.

"Yes Troy, I promise I'm coming. I juts need to find the right outfit." She picked up another top and held it up to her in the mirror; Troy shifted his eyes to her reflection and had to resists questioning the length of the t-shirt. Gabriella's eyes glinted in the mirror and Troy realised she was watching him watch her. He hastily looked away, trying hard not to squint to find her reflection in the glass doors that led to her balcony.

"Okay… that top is way too short." He couldn't help blurting out the last bit, and was relieved when his girlfriend laughed in response.

"Yeah, I know. I don't even know why I even take it out of my wardrobe anymore." She laughed lightly and threw the shirt back onto the pile next her, then sighed and walked over to the bed, flopping down next to Troy. She sighed heavily, as if choosing something to wear to friendly East High verses West High basketball game was the most stressful thing she'd ever encounter.

"Why does it matter so much that you wear the right shirt?" Troy asked cautiously, knowing full well that any questions about fashion could lead Gabriella into an hour-long rant.

"Because…" She answered shortly, surprising Troy immensely.

"Because why?" He decided to push her a little further.

"Because…" She glanced at the boy sitting next to her, smirking at her easily and looking utterly uninterested. "Why does it matter to you?" Troy shrugged.

"I just want to know, I mean seriously, heaps of girls like dressing up, but who is there to impress at a basketball game?" Gabriella smirked and raised your eyebrows at her boyfriend.

"You can't think of anyone I'd want to impress…?" she teased, drawing out every word.

"Hm… oh no." His eyes flicked to hers and his expression was one of alarm.

"What?" she asked concernedly, worried that he'd suddenly remembered a reason why she couldn't come.

"You're trying to impress Chad, you're cheating on me with him!" His voice dissolved into a laugh as Gabriella pouted and hit his shoulder.

"Hey, I actually thought there was something wrong!"

"You should've seen your face!" Troy managed between laughs, doubling over and falling forwards off the bed so that he was now sitting on the cream carpet next to it. He stopped laughing abruptly when he realised that he was on the floor. "Ow." He commented, and Gabriella nodded in satisfaction.

"You deserved that." She said, before sliding off the bed to sit beside him.

"Why?" He asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer.

"Because you made me worried for no reason." Troy smirked and began stroking her hair that trailed down her back. Gabriella sighed softly and dropped her head onto her boyfriend's shoulder, sliding her hand onto his knee at the same time.

"There was a reason." Troy dropped his head on top of Gabriella's.

"What was it then?" his shoulder shifted a little under Gabriella's head and she pushed herself closer to him.

"Um… cause you're really cute when you're worried?" It came out as more of a question than a comment.

"Thanks." Gabriella smiled and stood, lifting Troy's head off hers. Troy made a sound of annoyance and reached up the Gabriella's hand, forcing her to pull him up with her. "Gosh Troy, you weigh a tonne," she complained, and let go of his hand so that she could go back over to her pile of clothes.

"Come on Gabi, why can't you just come like that?" Troy asked seriously, standing at the door waiting for her. Gabriella looked down at her outfit, consisting of a pair of skinny jeans, a casual dark brown singlet top and a pair of black flats, she wasn't exactly dressed to impress.

"Troy, I look really…" She struggled to find the right word.

"Casual?" Gabriella's eye flicked to his and she half-shrugged half-nodded.

"Exactly."

"What's wrong with casual?"

"I want to look good."

"People make way to big of a deal about these things. Besides, you always look good." Troy smirked as he spoke and took a few steps towards his girlfriend who blushed modestly.

"Yeah but you have to say that…"

"So? You saying that I'm wrong?"

"Wouldn't be the first time…" Troy put on an expression of mock-hurt and took the last few steps towards Gabriella.

"Ouch." He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him, running his other hand up her back. She moved into him and rested her head on his shoulder, squeezing his hand in hers. "What's the time?" he whispered, dipping his head so that when he spoke his lips brushed her ear.

"11:00."

"We have to go." Gabriella wriggled as Troy pulled away and began towards the door. She paused for a moment, then, when she saw him go straight out the door and down the hallway, sighed and followed, tugging on her top a little to make it look neater.

--

The couple arrived at the park early, even though it took Troy ages to find a parking spot. Once the car had stopped Troy jumped out and opened Gabriella's door for her, wrapping his arm around her waist the second that he could. She shot him a questioning look, but didn't say anything.

Together they wandered slowly through the park, completely unaware of everything but each other. They took the longest route to the basketball court, but still go there early and were forced to sit around for ten minutes. Eventually Chad arrived, closely followed by everyone else involved in the game and then the game began.

Gabriella watched in awe as Troy shot basket after basket, and by the end of the game the West High team wasn't even trying. A large group had gathered to watch the game, and by the end about half of their year-group from East High were standing around the cheap, concrete court.

The alarm on Chad's watch sounded suddenly, just as West High had taken the ball and everyone cheered, running to the basketball tea who were milling awkwardly in the middle of the court. Gabriella watched on in amusement, Troy was right people made way to big a deal of this.

She smiled as Troy extracted himself from the cheering group and jogged towards her. He stopped just in front of her and paused for a moment, trying to decide how annoyed Gabriella would be if he got his sweat all over her. Gabriella leant back to turn and persuade Troy not to hug her, but she was too late. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, drenching her in his sweat.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew," Gabriella repeated until he let go, smirking at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked innocently.

"Ew!" she commented. Troy smiled and glanced behind him, no one had even noticed that their star had disappeared.

"Let's go. No one will notice for ages." Gabriella smiled and pulled Troy's arm around her waist, putting both her arms around him too. He smiled down at her and they quickly slipped away from the basketball court. Troy led them along a path and into a less popular part of the park. They sat on a bench together and Gabriella curled into Troy's side. Troy hugged her and stroked her hair, letting the ebony strands seep between his fingers.

As much as he liked people fussing over him and cheering for him when he was the champion of a basketball game, he knew that all he truly wanted was to be there with his girlfriend.

**Urgh... EWWWWWW I hated that!!!!!! please tell me you did too, please?**


	12. TELL, FRIENDS, SMILE

**Sorry this took two days to update, i just wasn't in a writing mood yesterday.**

_Dedicated to troyellaforever23 because she said aww I love aww's!), Eaglechic32 and pinksuugar because they both read all of this in one go, well done! I couldn't endure that mush of my writing in one sitting._

_**TELL**_** all his **_**FRIENDS**_** about me and **_**SMILE**_** when he did…**

Troy knew that his friends thought he was whipped, and in truth, he probably was, but how could anyone not like Gabriella? He couldn't help watching his girlfriend's long hair dance on her back as she paraded down the hallway, laughing and smiling the whole time, looking like she didn't have a care in the world. He couldn't help staring as she sat down carefully at her desk, her long, smooth legs folding under her chair as she lowered herself onto the uncomfortable plastic chair. He couldn't help looking at her as she spun the silver dial and pulled her locker open, shuffling through the organised mess within to put books and papers in their appointed locations. He couldn't help just wanting to see her every time he turned a corner in the hallway or entered the cafeteria; hoping to hear her soft laugh or catch sight of her long wavy hair, finally having grown back to its former glory.

He heard an inaudible noise distract his daydreaming and was literally pushed back into reality when Chad shoved him over at their table in the cafeteria.

"What's wrong with you dreamer-boy?" his best friend asked in an offhand voice, as if not really expecting an answer. Troy fulfilled his expectations gallantly and said nothing in response, instead picking up a piece of spaghetti from his almost full container and dropping it into his mouth. "Fine, don't answer." Chad turned away and immediately engaged himself in a conversation about the latest basketball game. Troy rolled his eyes and let his gaze slide from his friend to the double-doors that led into the cafeteria. At any time now she could walk through them and shoot him her amazing smile; he would never ever risk miss getting his smile, so stared at the door for about five minutes before his girlfriend was supposed to arrive.

Gabriella sighed and sat back in her seat, sure, extension maths was good for her, it meant that she completed two years of work in one, but why did they have to say in for half of lunch. Her stomach rumbled quietly at the thought of the greasy food that the school provided, it wasn't much, but it did at least contain a little bit of food… maybe. She let her head loll back, knowing that the teacher wouldn't even notice because he was so immersed in his excitement at answering another girl's question.

She let her thoughts drift away from maths and from school. Almost as if she'd already planned what to daydream about, Gabriella's mind immediately leapt to troy and particularly great day that they'd spent at her house last weekend.

Troy had been over at her house having lunch with her and her mum, they'd had chicken sandwiches and brownies, basically the only things that all of them liked, but they still all enjoyed the meal. Gabriella's mum was very curious about Troy, ever since she'd first met him, Gabriella was never really sure if her mum wanted to know about Troy as Gabriella's boyfriend, or Troy as a person, but he acted like a good example of both in front of her mother.

Then her mother had gone to work for the afternoon, and, left at home alone, Gabriella and Troy had managed to get into a very deep make out session, which may have escalated to more had Gabriella's mother not arrived home so soon.

A sudden flurry of movement around her awakened Gabriella from her thoughts. She quickly packed up her things and hurried out the room, stopping briefly at her locker to squash her books inside, before checking her watch and heading towards the cafeteria for lunch.

Troy craned his neck so that he could still see the doors over a girl's head as she walked past him. Her perfume smelled way to strong for his liking, not anything like Gabriella's. A feeling of excitement gripped him as he glanced at his watch, she should be here any minute.

"Gosh, Troy, you have got it so bad for that girl…" Chad's voice disrupted his train of thought and he looked angrily at his friend, barely realising that he was looking away from the door.

"What girl?" He asked sharply.

"Oh, the girl who just walked past. Who do you think Troy?" Chad said sarcastically, providing entertainment for the whole table.

"So you mean Gabriella?" Troy was having trouble holding back a smile at her name; it just sounded so wonderful rolling off his tongue.

"Yes, I do mean Gabriella." Chad said it bluntly and with no expression, it would never sound nice when he said it.

"What do you mean I've 'got it so bad' for her?" Troy glanced back at the doors quickly, wondering how he could forget such an important task. He looked back at Chad when he responded.

"Come on man, staring at the door just so you can get your little smile when she come in? Not many guys have it worse…" Troy shrugged defensively.

"But it is a nice smile." One of the other basketball guys pointed out, and other nodded in agreement.

"Exactly, and I'm the only on the gets it." Troy smiled as he let a hint of pride escape into his tone, Gabriella's affections were well worth being proud of, after all, it hadn't been easy winning them. Chad shook his head.

"Yeah, and you are so proud of that." He remarked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Why shouldn't I be? She's absolutely amazing and you know it." Others stared at Troy with admiring expressions, Chad scowled, he didn't like losing.

"That's beside the point." He muttered and stood to go get more food, Troy watched his friend walk away, then turned his gaze back to the door, feeling guilty for leaving it unwatched for so long. He couldn't help smiling when he realised that he'd wont he argument.

"I can't believe you can totally cut off your best friend like that, and then still smile when you think about your girlfriend." A cheerleader observed, sounding observant rather than accusing.

"It's not my fault if she's easier to like than he is." Troy shrugged, smiling wider; he knew how much Chad hated the fact that Gabriella was so likeable. A few people laughed and Troy chuckled along too, pushing away the tiny hint of a bad feeling that he'd just shunted his best friend out of his life more.

"Do you love her?" Zeke's words were quiet, but the silence after was absolute, making it feel like he'd yelled. Troy turned back to the group, awkwardly shrugging in response.

"Maybe… kinda… I guess…" Everyone still looked tense, so Troy cleared his throat and rethought his answer. "Yes." The tension still didn't lift, although a few did exchange smiles at his confession.

"Have you told her?" Zeke's tone stayed neutral. Troy tried to keep looking awkward, but couldn't hold a straight face for long and his smile eventually broke out.

"Of course, I told her ages ago." Everyone smiled along with him and then turned back to their own conversations, leaving no evidence of his big confession except a few lingering smiles.

Troy turned back to his position so he was facing the doors. They opened and a small girl with dark hair entered. She looked around and caught his eye. Even though he couldn't tell from this distance, her eyes were a beaming chocolate brown. her mouth twitched for a second, then broke into a tender smile which he returned. Then she turned away and headed towards the long line of students still waiting for their lunch.

Troy looked away and let himself fall back into his thoughts. He got his smile and he knew he loved her; for now, that was all that he wanted.

**Blurgh! I think I've lost my touch... nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!**


	13. MAKE OUT, POURING RAIN

**Okay, I've convinced myself that I haven't lost my touch, I think this was wonderfully written, even for my standards (I have a major ego problem when it comes to my writing, but so many people think its so good, why shouldn't I?)**

_Dedicated to babygal4real because her entire review consisted of four letters, omgitzzzzzzJenny because there were four exclamation marks in her first review and B. Shorter because that's a really cool name and becasue there were four 'o' 's in their review (I don't knwo what it is with four today, but whatever)_

**_MAKE OUT_ with me in the _POURING RAIN_…**

Thousands of tiny drops of rain hit the window of the dark house. Each individual thimble-full of water splattered against the worn glass in a rhythmic tune; keeping the beat as the thunder rolled in during a crescendo.

Gabriella sat on her bed, looking blankly out at the curtain of water, blocking anything outside her window from her view. She shivered, despite her flannel pyjamas and hugged her legs closer to her chest, resting her head lightly on her knees. She hummed a slow tune, almost in time with the rain, each hundred drops forming one beat of her song. Her reflection the large glass door was distorted by the torrent of rain flowing freely down it, but a small smile could just be made out; playing on her thin lips.

Her head was tilted slightly as she examined the scene outside. What seemed like billions of litres of water fell effortlessly from the dark clouds, only visible in the light coming from the streetlights on the far-off road because the clouds had blocked all signs of the stars. One could almost make out patterns in the sheets of rain, Gabriella thought; what looked to her like a lion's head sprung suddenly through the endless downpour, drowned almost immediately by the flood of droplets of its own kind. Next a horses main appeared, followed briefly by its tail and hooves… sadly these were only parts of the creature, but Gabriella sat a little straighter to see if maybe closer to the ground they'd join to form the entire animal. They didn't.

A barely audible noise disturbed her from her thoughts, and it took Gabriella a moment to realise that her phone was vibrating on her bedside table. She hastily picked it up and brought it to her ear.

"Hello?" her voice was only a whisper, but nonetheless she glanced at her closed door cautiously.

"Gabi? It's me."

"Troy! Why are you calling me at…" she checked her digital clock, next to her bed, "-2am! I didn't even know it was that late!"

"Early." His uncoordinated voice showed that he was also tired. "And I was calling cause I knew you'd be awake."

"How?" she yawned and laid back on her bed, her mind easily straying from the scene that she had been enthralled in just moments ago.

"It's raining." His answer was simple yet she understood it. There was a actually a scientific reason for people having more energy when it rained, but she'd never bothered to explain to anyone, and besides, her love for rain went much further than science could explain. Gabriella giggled quietly and glanced at her door again, at the same time fiddling with her a thin chain that hung around her neck.

"Oh yeah, I didn't notice…" she let her gaze slide to the waterfall crashing silently off the edge of her balcony into the dark world beyond, shielded by the seemingly endless curtain of water.

"Sure you didn't, why else would you be up at 2 in the morning?" Troy's tired laugh sounded so natural that Gabriella had to holdback a sigh of contempt.

"Why are you up so late… early?"

"I was thinking of you." Gabriella smiled to herself and pulled her necklace out from under her pyjama top, fingering the silver 'T' that hug from it tenderly.

"I was thinking of you too." She murmured.

"Liar, you were watching the rain." She giggled again, strangely the love of her life hadn't actually been the thing on her minds for the last 5 hours, but he was now.

"I want to see you." She said suddenly, unexpectedly.

"I want to see you too." Troy sounded confused but still in control. "I'll come over to your place for breakfast, just like I said I would yesterday."

"No, I want to see you now." She stood and began changing out of her pyjamas, grabbing a black top and a pair of dark blue pants and pulling them on.

"What do you mean?" His tone was a little more puzzled, a little les controlled.

"I'm coming to see you now, leave your window open, okay?" She opened her wardrobe and dug through her clothes for a jacket which she threw on over her top, tugging the base of it down a little too.

"Gabi, you can't come now, it's pouring. I'll come over to your place."

"Don't be silly, I want to come visit you." Troy shook his head at his girlfriend's word and stood from his bed, feeling around on the floor for a shirt. "I'll be there soon, bye!" He froze as he heard the dull, beep beep beep of the now dead line. What had gotten into her? Shaking his head and grabbed the nearest piece of fabric and shoved his head through it, discovering that luckily it was in fact a t-shirt. Walking out his bedroom door he tried not to glance out the kitchen window as he passed it, also attempting to ignore the hammering rain on the front door as he stood before it. Pausing for a moment, he eventually opened the door and forced himself out into the freezing shower. Quickly hurrying out of his driveway and pushing back his hair as it began to drip into his eyes,

Gabriella skipped along the slippery pavement, not at all worried about falling over due to the dark or the rain. She threw her head back and let the raindrops fall onto her tongue, swallowing them and feeling like a five-year old as she did.

Her steps slowed as a shadowy figure suddenly appeared through the endless surge of water. She could see much of them, only their white t-shirt that must have been drenched through. Her footsteps ceased as she hovered between thoughts, run or keep going. Suddenly the decision was made for her when she heard a familiar voice.

"Gabi!" Troy quickened his pace and skidded to a halt beside her; flicking water onto her already soaked clothes.

"Troy! What are you doing here? I said I'd meet you at your place!" She had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise of the rain.

"I wanted to meet you at your place." His tone was raised but still seemed quiet and a little confused.

"But Troy…" she let out a half-giggled as she looked him up and down; he was wearing shorts and a white t-shirt which had gone completely see-through. She couldn't help marvelling at the perfection his toned chest.

"Yes?" He scanned her too, she was wearing dark colours so none of her clothes had gone see-through, but the moisture did make them stick to her slim form, outlining every curve on her.

"You're all wet!"

"So are you!"

"And cold too!"

"Yeah, I am a little." He hadn't realised until now, but goosebumps had erupted all over his tanned skin and he folded his arms in attempt to keep warm. Gabriella sighed and stepped closer to him, putting her arms around his neck and pulling herself into him, spreading some of her heat. "Thanks." He murmured, burying his head in her wet, stringy hair.

The couple stood there for a while, embracing each other, pretending hat it was a simple friendly gesture of warmth when both knew the high levels of tension that it was building. Gabriella pushed herself harder against him, almost feeling her warmth flow between them along with a thousand other things. Troy tightened his grip on her and let his hands fall, one around her waist and the other on her back, rubbing small a pattern on her skin through the thin top.

Soon, both pulled back and instantly locked their lips together, kissing passionately as the rain still hammered on around them. Troy's arms pulled her even close, trying to get rid of every tiny particle of air separating their bodies. Gabriella felt a moan sound from the back of her throat as Troy's lips tempted her head up as they kissed her neck. She felt her feet leave the ground and lifted them to around his middle, holding him closer with all four limbs now. He moved one of his hands lower on her back, supporting her while the other touched her cheek and neck lightly.

Gabriella felt one of her hands begin to roam through Troy's hair and the other pressed against his chest. Her head was still leaning back as he continued applying pressure to her neck. Eventually she shifted her head and attacked his lips again, running her tongue over them longingly. He let her pry his mouth open and the kiss deepened.

Troy's eyes were clamped closed but he still managed to navigate them to a pole, which he pushed her against even as they still continued their long, lustful kiss. His hands strayed all over her body as his lips tore from hers back to her neck, Gabriella pressed slight kisses to his head as he did the same to her neck, although not as slight.

Neither was any longer aware of the pouring rain, drowning out the occasional moan or sound of skin brushing against damp clothes. It even hid them, their pole hat they were both pressed against, as much there because of themselves as because the other had them held there. But right there, with everything that they did hidden from the rets of the world, there was nothing that they wanted more than the pouring the rain.

**Yay! It's morning now! When I wrote the top comment it was 11;57, but now its 12:02, good morning from Aus! I reall yneed soem sleep right now...**

**Please tell me if you thoguht that was as good as I did, it took me all night to think up the perfect scene cause usually I can only write raining scenes when it's actually raining (I mean like in the real world), but it isn't. So... tell me if you liked/disliked, I don't mind if you didn't like it by the way, cause it got into a little more detail than my others, sorry about that.**

**Alos, describing Gabi's behavious, i really do go ultra high in the rain (and there really is a scientific reason why, if you want me to tell you I'll say it in my reply to your review) and I do do completely crazy things like randomly organise to meet people int he middle of the night if its raining... so if that explaiend Gabriella at all then I hope it made sense.**


	14. FRIENDS, I LOVE YOU

**I'm so sorry that this took so long to update, but I've been writing non-fanfiction stuff for a while and I haven't really been in a fluffy mood for a while. I also think i've started stuffing up the chaper names, it doens;t really seem like I'm highlighting the important words anymore, but I can't change that now so I hope you can cope. Lol.**

_Dedicated to BoSoxFanatic because the word 'love' was used twice in their review, alexis because all of her 3 sentences ended with exclamation marks and dancinluva20 she goes nuts int he raint oo and she had 3 'lol''s in her review._

**Never be afraid to say **_**I LOVE YOU**_** in front of his **_**FRIENDS**_**…**

Gabriella's tear-stained face appeared through the bustling crowd as she ran towards Troy, throwing herself into his arms. She buried her head in his chest and sobbed freely, soaking his basketball singlet in the warm salty flow.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, not asking what was wrong, just staying silent until she was ready to speak. He slowly rubbed up and down her back, not minding the slightest when he felt his soaked singlet beginning sticking to his already sweaty chest.

Their friends all stood around them, protecting them from most of the stares and whispers coming from the increasingly crowded hallway. Chad and Taylor both looked worriedly on at their best friends, while the rest of the group (including much of the basketball team), stood awkwardly near the embracing couple, trying hard to resist talking despite the lack of reason for the situation.

Gabriella clutched Troy closer to her, completely oblivious to everything but herself ad the boys in front of her with the tear-soaked singlet. Although she could smell his sweat from the basketball game, she didn't mind, it was part of his smell, even if when it was this strong it wasn't quite as comforting as when it was mixed with the smell of soap and his cologne.

Troy rested his head on top of Gabriella's as she shifted her body and curled up in his chest. He moved one of his hands to her hair and stroked it lightly, letting it tangle slightly in her silky curls. He felt more than heard her tears begin to die down and eventually stop, finally allowing her to look up at him.

Her face was blotched and tear stained, but as she reached up to wipe the remaining drips away, she felt another hand beat her there. Troy cupped her cheek and softly brushed away her tears with his thumb, leaving ti there for a moment longer before he let it drop back to her waist.

Gabriella let the smallest smile come onto her face. She knew how terrible she must look; her hair all mattered around the front from her brushing it away with her tar-stained hand, her face all blotchy with patches of red and pale skin. Her lips trembled a little and she pushed her head into Troy's neck, placing impossibly light kisses where her mouth touched; each slow, lingering and full of thanks. Troy only pulled her closer.

A rough cough came from beside them and both looked up as Chad glanced around the hall at anything besides them.

"Yes?" Troy's tone was indignant and mildly sarcastic. Chad pretended not to hear.

"He's just an idiot." Taylor shrugged, ignoring Chad's expression of mock-hurt. "Are you okay Gabs?" Gabriella nodded slowly, letting Troy brush any more remainders of tears out of her eyes and off her face. Taylor smiled in a relieved way.

"Of course she's fine." Troy said. "I'm here." Gabriella let out a small giggle and leant her side against Troy's chest, finding one of his hands and wrapping it around her waist in the process. Taylor looked relieved but not convinced.

"As much as she likes you, I'm not positive that you can make everything all better-" Taylor began, but Gabriella cut her off.

"Love."

"Huh?"

"As much as I love him. And of course he can." The group stared, since when had Troy and Gabriella been on 'love' terms?

"And I love you too." Troy responded, turning Gabriella around so she was facing him again. Taylor had to try hard to resist rolling her eyes and she noticed Chad's pained expression beside her. He nudged her hand and she glanced at him, holding back a laugh as he pretended to puke, indicating towards Gabriella and Troy who were whispering who knows what to each other between short kisses. Taylor really did roll her eyes then turned back to the couple.

"Um, you guys?" They didn't make any move to respond. "Gabs… Troy?" She paused again; still no response. "The couple that is making out in the middle of the hallway!" She raised her voice but it still had no effect, now Troy and Gabriella's lips were locked tight together and she didn't even want to imagine what was going on inside their mouths… which looked pretty open to her.

"Let's go." Chad suggested and the group nodded, all quickly slipping away from the oblivious couple, who were soon backing towards a block of lockers.

Gabriella gasped into the kiss when she felt her back hit a locker, it's lock dug sightly into her skin, but she ignored it, too caught up in the kiss to care about such a trifle as back pain. Troy's hands crept under the base of her shirt and lightly stroked her stomach, trying hard not to let is hands travel any higher. Gabriella snaked her arms around Troy's neck and pulled his face closer to hers. They separated for a moment as they caught their breath, then continued just as heatedly as before, Gabriella's hands soon disappearing below then top of Troy's shirt as they rubbed his back appreciatively.

Their activities were halted when a teacher appeared around the corner.

"Montez! Bolton! I thought you two knew better!" They jumped away from one another as if receiving an electric shock and then began blushing profusely. "That's better. Now off to class, both of you." They both nodded and quickly and began towards their lockers, but they paused as the teacher spoke again. "And in the future please keep your hands to yourself! Both of you." Their blushes deepened and they didn't even hold hands until they were safely at their desks in class, where they grasped hands briefly under the table while no one was watching.

"Since when were you on the 'love' stage with Troy?" Taylor whispered to Gabriella part way through class.

"Since a while ago." She answered casually, looking up and copying a bit more from the bored in an absent-minded way.

"How long ago is 'a while ago'?" Taylor dug deeper, curious about how her best friend had kept such a big thing from her for so long.

"I don't know, maybe a few weeks… almost a month now." Gabriella was still stolidly refusing to meet Taylor's eager gaze.

"A month!" Everyone looked p from their work at Taylor's loud voice, including Troy who smirked at Gabriella then winked before looking down again. "Sorry," Taylor dropped her voice again. "A month!?" Gabriella nodded easily, closing her book and settling back in her chair.

"It's not a big deal, we both already knew, we just hadn't said it yet."

"It is too a big deal." Gabriella smiled lightly and shifted a little so she was more comfortable. "But how do you know you like him… that much?" Taylor seemed nervous and Gabriella shrugged.

"I just, sort of, knew, you know? He's everything that I've ever wanted."

"And more too I'm sure." Gabriella blushed slightly and leant forward again.

"Everything I want and more." She agreed.

**Short, I know, and corny and confusing, but hey, that's me.**


	15. KISS, MIDNIGHT

**Sorry it took so long to update, but i made a recent discovery that I do in fact have a social life, and I've been busy all weekend... not sayign that people who update regularly don't ave a social life, but i didn't before now-ish so it's a big thing for me (lol, i'm so pathetic). Also, not that oit really matters, but I actually skipped a chapter and went on to write this, because I didn't know what to write for the other one so I'm leaving it for now.**

_Dedicated to ScRuPuLoUs because even though the last chappy was corny they say it was still sweet, my adorable puppy-dog Trix who is my best friend in the world (lol, isn't that pathetic? but I love him sooooo much!) and Andrew Hansen off The Chaser (I have no idea if anyone who reads this knows The Chaser) because I love him (differently to how i love my dog) and he is really funny and really sweet and he looked so sad when hat guy threw the oat-brits at him, every one of my friends said 'aww' at his expression._

_**KISS **_**me at **_**MIDNIGHT**_** on New Years****…**

Was it possible to be anywhere better right now? Gabriella smiled as she had trouble trying to think of a more perfect date with Troy. There that time he'd taken her a huge lake and they'd hiked to a waterfall and sat there for hours watching it… but this was even better.

She glanced over at Troy, chatting easily with Chad and a few others as he flipped over sausages on the barbecue. He was smiling too; a kind of dazed smile that told Gabriella that he too couldn't believe the total and complete perfection of the situation. She turned away from him again, having a slight feeling tat he was looking at her back, but not turning around to investigate. She stared awe-struck out towards the endless-seeming ocean before her, the final rays of sunlight dancing on the almost clear surface, glinting off the small, soothing waves. The sky in front of her was a dark, royal blue, already spotted with a few tiny stars and the almost full moon. The sunset was behind her, away from the sea, but the colours from it still managed to reach the smooth water, looking even more abstract and muddled in the contorted reflection.

"Hey Gabs? You coming?" She stood up slowly, wanting to just sit watching the sea for the rest of her life. Sighing, she slapped a mosquito off her arm and jogged towards the wooden deck of the house, where all of her friends were crowding around the barbecue, talking and handing plates with sausage sandwiches around.

Reaching the deck, she brushed the sand off her mostly dry feet and grabbed her towel from the low railing, pulling it around her shoulders when a light breeze whistled past gently.

"Gabriella, you going to have a sausage or just salad?" Troy asked, emerging from the crowd with two plates. She noticed that only one had a sausage on it.

"Do I have a choice?" she responded, moving closer to Troy and planting a quick peck on his cheek before taking the sausage-less plate. He smiled at her and followed her to a place on the long table sitting on the deck with a heap of dirty plates and plastic cups scattered over it.

"Not really, no." He answered, and pulled out a seat for her. She shook her head and motioned for him to sit, so he did. Then she lowered herself onto his lap and curled up into his chest. He smiled down at her and she smiled back, how much more perfect could the night be.

"It's so great that we got this place for the summer, isn't it?" Chad sat down next to the couple and began stuffing his face with everything on his plate. Troy and Gabriella just nodded in response. "Who knew that Australia was so great?"

"It's not that great." Chad looked incredulously at Gabriella, who just shrugged and lifted a lettuce leaf to her mouth.

"I don't see anything wrong with it." Troy chuckled as he ate his sausage roll, Chad loved winding Gabriella up, and Gabriella always fell for it.

"How many mozzie bites have you gotten?"

"One or two, why?"

"If you gotten as many as I have, you'd think Australia wasn't as good." Gabriella grumbled, subconsciously rubbing one of the many red bumps on her skin as she spoke.

"It's not my fault that I have gross blood, or that you have nice blood for that matter." Gabriella glared at him as if it was is fault and scratched her arm again.

"Still, it is nice to have summer twice." Troy put in, glancing out at thenow dark water and sky.

"Hmm." Gabriella agreed dreamily, following her boyfriend's gaze. Chad smirked, and excused himself from their company, not that either of them even noticed him leaving.

Gabriella yawned and settled further into Troy's arms, both staring at the star-spangled sky around them. Troy dug his toes further into the sand, and shivered when a trickle of water from an incoming wave washed over them. The entire group who was staying in the small beach-house for their winter break were all scattered across the long, otherwise empty beach. It surprised the group that no one else had taken refuge at such an amazing place, but no one was complaining about the relative privacy that they'd been granted.

Troy and Gabriella sat a little further away from the main group than everyone else. They enjoyed spending the Australian summer with their friends, but in a house full of teenagers it was sometimes hard to find time for themselves… in fact it was always hard to find time for themselves.

A few white and grey seagulls glided through the warm night air, but they were few and far between so barely bothered anyone. A dog barked from somewhere to their left, and a few turned and looked for the source of the noise. It was so silent that the loudest sound was the waves, washing endlessly onto the almost white sand, rolling around the mass of shells that had gathered at the tide line. The atmosphere was apprehensively exhilarating, and although everyone was silence, it was so full of suspense that many could hardly hold back their un-sounded yells and cheers.

The atmosphere was shattered when the first firework shot into the sky, bursting with an explosion of gold sparks.

Everyone cheered and shouted and clapped as more fireworks lit up the beach. The bangs when they popped came a matter of seconds later, and each time the explosion was big, everyone was silent, waiting for the ground-shaking noise that followed it.

Troy and Gabriella watched the sea light up with the firework's reflections, pools of red, green and silver glittering on the dark surface. The noise of the waves was easily downed out as the display continued- five, six or seven explosions lighting the midnight sky at some stages. Chad was cheering madly, applauding with each bang that sounded, trying to drown out the immeasurably loud noise. He wasn't succeeding. More dogs had begun barking madly at the fireworks, doing much better than Chad at lessening the noise.

A blue firework shot up, and for a moment Gabriella saw Troy's white shirt light up to match his smiling eyes. She smiled back and felt a slight blush creep into her cheeks for no reason. Troy chuckled and raised his hand to push a few stray strands of hair from his girlfriend's face, letting his hands linger on her cheek for a moment longer than necessary just to feel her skin on his for one more second.

She shifted her body off his lap and turned to kneel between his legs, wrapping her arms around his neck in a sitting-down hug. He eagerly dropped both his hands to her waist and held her close. They were both now completely numb to everything but each other, the scream of their friends and the sound of the fireworks drowned out by their own hammering hearts.

Eventually they both pulled away, but immediately missed the warmth of another body against theirs. Troy's smile became more sincere as he noticed Gabriella's blush and he slowly inclined his head towards hers, wanting to make the moment as perfect as possible for her. Gabriella smiled too, and quickly closed the distance between them, bringing her lisp to his.

They kissed shyly, tenderly, then passionately, without taking a breath, and still didn't look like they planned on stopping. Troy's hands rubbed the bronze skin on Gabriella's stomach and she moved her hands to his dark hair, letting it seep between her fingers like silk.

No one noticed the kissing couple, their limbs so entwined you could barely make out whose were whose is the dim light from the fireworks. But if anyone had, they couldn't have helped but think that maybe Chad was right. Maybe this was the perfect place to be. Maybe this was just what the couple wanted.

**I think I've ended like that before... but anyway. I also wanted to add the info that I am from now on swearing to myself that I whenever I post for this I will post for Just Friends of First Time, because I know I probably have a lot of readers fro both those stories and neither have been updated for ages. I thought i'd mention that because it means that this won't be being updated as often, but it's almost the holidays so during them I might update every one or two days. **

**And to that person who said they had this icon, you may have noticed that i cut out half this message, I'm sorry but I coudln't think of a way to incorporate in into the story so I left it out. I may add it as another chapter later on... maybe.**


	16. FRIDAY NIGHT, WATCH MOVIES, SAME BLANKET

**Woah, a really long one for you all, I've written a lot today haven't I? This one is definately another quite intense one, and if you take note of some of the finer points of it there are in fact some inplications, I'll point them out at the end if you don't pick up on them.**

_Dedicated to Jack, Rose and everyone else in the Titanic movie (a corny dedicaion, I know, but hear me out) becasue that movie hit me really deep and really made me think, which not many movies do. I swear if I was capable of writing as high quality romance as that movie features I'd write it, but I can't so i won't becasue honestly in my opinion it deserves only the best which definately isn't me. I think it would be greta if every single person these days could understand the deeper meaning of that movie, but sadly I can't help to point it out becasue it's up to you to discover. I knwo this whole thing is corny... but hey, nothing is weet without being corny, and nothign is deep wihtout being corny, so bring forth the corniess!_

**Stay**_** HOME **_**with me on a **_**FRIDAY NIGHT**_** and **_**HELP**_** me make dinner and **_**WATCH MOVIES**_** with me under the **_**SAME BLANKET**_**…**

The doorbell rang and Gabriella leapt off her bed, not bothering to put her shoes on as she rushed downstairs and threw the door open.

"Hi honey, you're a little eager to open the door for me." Her mum looked confusedly at her and entered the house, putting down her bag and umbrella before giving Gabriella a hug.

"Oh… yeah, right. I thought you were someone else." Gabriella's mumbling trailed off into nothingness as she began back towards the stairs.

"So you weren't actually that eager to see me?" Gabriella turned around and gave her mother a dull glare, but her mother just smiled light-heartedly. "Of course I know you thought I was Troy. But it would still be nice if once you got a boyfriend you didn't start completely ignoring your own mother." Gabriella sighed and watched her mother turn and go into the kitchen. She stepped back down the three or four steps that she'd stepped up and went back to where her mum was in the kitchen, chewing on an apple slowly.

"Sorry mum. It's just I haven't seen Troy for ages and he's had basketball training until really late since even before I was sick." She knew that her voice sounded whiny and annoying, but she couldn't help being a little bit frustrated.

"Well whose fault is it that you decided to go for a midnight stroll when it was pouring with rain?" Gabriella looked down to hide her blush. Yes, her mother knew about the midnight stroll, but she definitely didn't know that Gabriela had had company; and in Gabriella's mind she never needed to find out.

"It was fun though…" Rolling her eyes, Gabriella's mum finished her apple and dropped the core into the bin.

"Now, where do you want me to disappear to while you and Troy have your date?" Gabriella sat on the bench and thought about her mother's question.

"Ideally… out of the house?" She knew that it sounded weird and that her mother would never go for it, but she still figured it was worth a try.

"No." Gabriella nodded, her mother was so easy to predict.

"What if you just stay upstairs in your room. With your door closed… and soundproofed." Her mother gave Gabriella a disapproving look, but she just smirked. No sane mother would listen to that sort of advice.

"What if I just stay out of the way?"

"Okay, but don't interrupt us regardless of what you see."

"Hmm. Alright. But my self-restraint does in fact end at a certain point."

"Okay, we won't do anything too bad."

"You shouldn't be doing anything bad at all. All you two are doing is watching a movie, how much can happen in that space of time?"

"Titanic is a long movie." Gabriella slid off the bench and started towards the kitchen door. "Full of heated make out scenes and absolutely terrifying things that'd just make me and Troy snuggle even closer together…" Gabriella shot her mother a mock-seductive look and hurried up the stairs.

"And here I was thinking that you wouldn't watch Troy to watch it because he might think that Kate Winslet is better looking than you!" Gabriella laughed as her mother's voice echoed after her.

"He's never seen me naked mum. He wouldn't know!" She laughed again and closed her bedroom door behind her, flopping down onto her bed again. Grabbing the nearest book she quickly buried her head in the novel, and lost track of the passing time as she carried on reading a story that she even thought about for years.

The doorbell rang again and again Gabriella jumped up from her bed as if receiving an electric shock. She glanced in the mirror, horrified at how messy her hair could get in… she looked at the clock… and hour? Whoa, time had passed really quickly. The doorbell rang again and she ran out her bedroom door and down the stairs, desperately trying to make herself look a little less dishevelled by pulling her jeans so they sat more comfortably on her hips and tugging her shirt into place.

She stood for a moment in front of the closed door, convinced that she had to look composed and much less excited than she actually was for Troy. Taking a few deep breaths, she eventually opened the heavy wooden door slowly, smiling shyly when her boyfriend's face came into sight, shortly followed by the rets of him as she took his whole self in.

The couple stare at each other for a while. One standing outside the door where there was still a drizzle of rain coming from the sky, and the other inside, looking warm, comfortable and flushed in the sudden rush of cold air from outside.

"You should come in." Gabriella managed to say. "It's cold." Despite her words, she made no move to unblock the doorway thus allow Troy to enter, they both just continued standing there, staring unblinkingly into one another's eyes. Troy nodded, mostly because it seemed like the right thing to do, he was barely even aware that a nod was required after Gabriella's words; then again, she wasn't either.

"Yeah." He said just to assure himself that his throat hadn't completely dried out. Gabriella nodded too, also not sure why but convinced that she should. The stunned silence stretched on.

Eventually it was broken.

"Gabi? Was that Troy? Is he here? Please let him in out of the cold, he must be frozen." Gabriella's mum's voice broke through the stillness between the couple. Troy stepped forward and Gabriella did too.

"Hi." She murmured.

"Hey." He answered, his husky voice barely above a whisper.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in so long." She sighed, and draped her arms around his neck. Troy smiled and snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her closer and burying his head in her shoulder, smelling her scent. He had missed her so much.

"That's cause you haven't." He responded, pressing his lips lightly to her exposed neck. She gasped at the contact between them and crept one of her hands into his hair, letting the damp, dark strands seep between her fingers. "I missed you." Troy said, outlining just how much by intensifying the pressure on her neck. Gabriella felt her breathing hitch and held back another gasp, it had been so long since they'd had such close contact, she hadn't realised how much she'd missed it.

"We should… go… inside." She managed to pant, puling away uncomfortable, much to Troy's objections. "Come on, you promised you'd make me dinner." Troy allowed Gabriella to untangle her arms from his and his from her body and they both quickly went inside, shutting the door behind them. Gabriella led him to the kitchen where some pasta and mince was lined up on the bench.

"Hey, you got the stuff I asked you to get." Troy's tone was surprised as he turned, smiling, to Gabriella.

"Of course I did." She answered indignantly. "Did you ever doubt me?" Troy smirked and looked away, leaving the question unanswered. Gabriella laughed and sat upon the bench again as Troy shuffled through her cupboards for a saucepan. "Bottom left." She pointed out and Troy smiled gratefully at her, it had been Friday night tradition for them to cook dinner and watch a movie together for as long as Gabriella could remember. It was just one of those stupid little couple-things that they did. But for the last few weeks Troy had been too busy with homework that he wasn't getting done because of basketball to come over, and along with Gabriella being sick and their parents banning physical contact in fear of Troy getting sick too, it had been very difficult to organise their tradition back on.

"Why don't you go set up the movie, this'll be ready once you've done that." Gabriella glared at Troy and jumped down from the bench. He just smirked at her and stood by the stove, emptying the mince into the saucepan along with some onion and tomatoes. She hit him playfully on the shoulder then leant up and kissed his cheek, heading out into the lounge room to find the DVD. "Well that was contradictory." Troy said from the kitchen and Gabriella just rolled her eyes.

"It's not my fault that I haven't seen you for three weeks, is it?" She shot back at him, rifling through the draws for the Titanic DVD.

"It is your fault that you got sick." He pointed out, stirring the mince.

"Is it? That was so long ago I can hardly remember…"

"Gabs, it was three weeks ago, and you've had the flu ever sicne, how could you not remember?"

"It feels like long ago." She grumbled, and pulled the DVD out of the back of the drawer. How did it get there? "Troy!"

"Hmm?"

"I found the DVD!" He rolled his eyes and poured the spaghetti into the pot of boiling water.

"Gabi."

"Yeah?"

"The bolognaise is done, the spaghetti will be about 2 more minutes."

"Oh."

"I told you that it'd be ready by the time you were. See, I was right." He found two bowls and spooned some of the sauce into them, careful not to drip any on the spotless bench.

"There's a first time for everything…" Gabriella muttered from the next room and Troy just smirked. Gabriella turned on the TV, convinced that she could have the DVD ready before Troy brought out the dinner. She put the DVD in the player and turned it on too. Then she pressed play and waited. The news still continued on the TV screen, an overly made-up reporter going on about a boat hitting an iceberg in the South Pole. She made an annoyed noise when she heard troy turn the stove off.

Troy's smirk widened when he entered the lounge room and saw Gabriella sitting in front of the TV with the news on before her.

"Looks like I won." He said, and, putting the dinner down on the coffee table behind them, sat next to Gabriella. She watched carefully as he leant towards the TV and fiddled with a button, suddenly the Titanic them came on and the title sequence appeared on the screen.

"How did you do that?" Gabriella asked, sliding along the floor so her back was to the table where their bowls of spaghetti bolognaise were.

"Magic." Troy answered and stood up, took two steps back, then sat down on the couch. He snatch Gabriella's bowl out of her reach and started on his dinner. "C'mon, I haven't seen you in three weeks, let alone kissed you. You have to come and sit her with me. Gabriella looked at him angrily.

"No. Not until you tell me how you made the DVD work." She said insistently, crossing her arms and pouting at the TV screen.

"Like I said, magic. Now come on Gabs, your dinner will get cold." She still looked away stonily.

"No. Not until you tell." Troy sighed, but couldn't help smiling at her, Gabriella looked cut when she pouted like that.

"The blanket's here…" Troy could see Gabriella's reflected face trying not to look around at him. "And your dinner, which is really good by the way…" Her reflection fuzzed up a little as the scene changed to a more bustling place, Troy tried to squint out her expression but couldn't. "Please Gabi, I'll watch this entire movie without commenting once on Kate Winslet." That seemed to do it. Gabriella quickly stood and hurried over to sit next to Troy, snatching a piece of spaghetti from his bowl before picking hers up off the table.

"Promise?" she asked, looking accusingly at him.

"On your life." He nodded back, earning a hit on the arm.

"Good, cause it's worth a lot more than yours." Troy shook his head in mock-disbelief and pulled the blanket on the arm of the sofa over himself. Gabriella snuggled into his side and pulled the blanket over herself as well, resting her head on his arm.

Soon, both bowls were empty and discarded on the floor. Gabriella was curled up in Troy's lap and he was holding her tight; Jack was holding Rose at the front of the boat, both smiling in wonder. But Troy and Gabriella had long forgotten the movie; it drew a parallel to their lives -except for everyone dying at the end- so why watch drama when there's enough in your everyday life.

Troy placed a gentle kiss on Gabriella's hair and Jack and Rose shared their first on the screen. Gabriella sighed gently and found one of Troy's hands, gripping it tightly. She leant back further against him and felt his rhythmic breathing against her back; she could feel her body and his rise and fall as one, lie they really were one person in all but reality.

She squeezed his hand tighter and lifted it to her lips, kissing his finger gently. He smiled and shifted a little under her. They were one person in all but reality, and that was all they wanted.

**That last scene... if you've seen Titanic you might recognise it, it jumps forward a little in the movie though fromt he scene that i talk about before. But that's the bit I was tlaking abou with the indications, cause it's actually a pretty obvious one if you've seen Titanic. And all that one person stuff, I DID NOT mean that they were physically connected, cos they weren't who watches an entire movie like that??? Lol... ew.**

**I thought this was worth disclaimign cause I haven't for a while: I don't own HSM or Titanic... but I'd love to own either.**


	17. ARGUE, STUPID, MAKE UP

**Whoa, this chapter is so long (for me), 5/6 pages on microword, so BE GRATEFUL! lol, jks. It's also a little confusing and mood-swingy and takes a logn tie to get to the point, which is why it's so long.**

_Dedicated to wezanessa cause there was an asterix (sp.?) in their review, hr1u because they picked up on my friend's obsessionw ith hair that has rubbed off on me (they know what I'm talking about) and Blue-eyesMoon-eyes because, i quote_ _"Whenever you [I, Jg Rox update, flowers bloom and kittens are born" which means that this wolrd must be totally over-populated by kittens and flowers cause i have like 27 incomplete un-fanfic stories on my comp that I've been writing since grade 1 (when I was 6, lol, according to my profile that means I've been writing for a year... or well). _

_**ARGUE**_** with me about **_**STUPID **_**things then **_**MAKE UP**_**…**

Troy lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He was completely exhausted. His dad had just run a three-hour practice and it felt as if the team hadn't achieved anything, Jason's shooting was still off, and Chad still didn't like passing to Sam (Chad said Sam was a dork and he'd probably drop the ball anyway, Troy secretly agreed, not that he'd tell anyone that). The worst part was that the coach knew that they'd achieved nothing, so he was pretty angry with everyone, and Troy happened to be the most convenient target right now.

He sat up on his bed when he heard angry footsteps coming up stairs and braced himself for his dad's entry.

"Troy Alexander Bolton what the hell happened during practice?" No matter how well he'd braced himself Troy was still a little worried when his father came blasting through his closed door. Good thing he hadn't thought of getting changed yet.

"I don't know, dad. I guess everyone was just sort of tired." Troy slid over to the side of his bed and faced his dad who was standing in the middle of his smallish bedroom.

"We have our finals in a week, Troy. We can't afford for your team to be tired."

"We?" Troy scoffed. "Dad, I know how they feel. It seems like all we've had time to do for ages now is basketball. Free period: basketball, before school: basketball, after school: basketball, weekends: basketball; of course everyone's tired, we barely have time to eat!" He already knew that he'd gone too far, in fact, he probably shouldn't have said anything and just let his dad vent, but he was the captain of his team and they were relying on him to protect them, even if it was from their own coach.

"I know it's a lot of basketball, but do you know how much this maters to everyone?" Coach Bolton was holding back his anger quite well, and seemed to be convinced that troy was just as desperate as he was to win the championship.

"Who's everyone? You and Chad? I don't even think Chad wants it this much." Troy rolled his eyes and stood up, staring towards his door.

"Troy, come back here." Troy took a deep breath and turned to face his dad, hoping that the terror that should've been caused by his dad's expression wouldn't set in until he'd finished his job.

"No dad. You don't get it, do you? We're not robots. We can't just work and work and work and still be okay. We need to eat and sleep and relax too you know."

"And does it look like I'm getting much relaxation during this time?" Mr Bolton's voice rose dangerously and Troy was proud of himself for not stepping back just out of reflex.

"You're not the one who's running up and down the gym all day, so in comparison, yeah, you're basically dead compared to what we have to do." Glaring at his dad in disgust, Troy turned to leave again, but apparently his dad wasn't finished.

"I have to work just as hard as you do young man. And don't you dare walk away."

"Maybe you do have to work, but you get paid for it. What do we get out of running a thousand laps everyday? Not even a 'congratulations'. That's really not an incentive for us to bother, dad."

"All of the boys joined the team because they wanted to, and they can drop out if they want to as well." Troy's dad's yells echoed off the walls of the bedroom. Troy shrugged.

"Good. I quit." And he walked out the door. He groaned out load when his dad followed him.

"You can't do that."

"Why not, you just said that any of us could quit whenever we wanted to." Troy smirked in contempt, how far would he have to push his dad just to get the point across.

"But you're not a quitter Troy! You never have been, not until you started dating that Gabriella girl and that's when everything went wrong." Troy spun around, even angrier than his father.

"None of this is Gabi's fault. She's the best thing that ever happened to me, the only good thing in this otherwise pathetic life." Now Troy's voice was as loud as hi dad's, and his tone was angrier.

"I can't believe you're defending her after this. Two seasons in a row now you've threatened to quit the team, look what she's doing to your life, Troy!" AT this point Troy's dad knew he'd gone too far, but he was the father, he was in charge, Troy was under his control… in theory.

"I never threatened to quit. I was just winding you up cause you're too thick to get it when I try to tell you something. Do you want me to spell it out to you nice and slow so that you can get it? Do you want to write it down?" Troy spoke to the grown man in front of him as if he were a three year old.

"Don't you dare use that tone on me!"

"Why not? Going to go run to your mummy and tell her that your own son is bullying you? Just because your life was so stuffed up doesn't mean you need to stuff mine up too, get it? So just leave me alone, I'm old enough to live my own life now. Thanks for the help." Troy ran the rest of the way down the stairs and all the way to the front door. He tugged on the handle; it was locked. He swore under his breath and searched the mantelpiece on his right for a key.

He felt a hand grab his and looked up at his dad, pure anger shooting out of his eyes.

"Get lost." Troy muttered and tried to pull his hand out of his father's grip, but there was a reason why Jack Bolton was a sports coach and he held his son's hand tight.

"This is my house, I'll do what I want here. You are never, ever allowed to talk to me like that, ever." Jack said through his teeth.

"You can't choose what I say, dad, give up." Troy tugged on his hand again, still unable to pull it of his father's vice-like grip.

"No I won't. My father gave up on me, and if anything stuff me up that's what it was."

"You're not getting the sympathy vote dad. Not after the stuff you just said to me," Troy snapped, finally finding the right key and giving his hand a final tug, eventually freeing it. "Bye. I'm going."

"Where?" Coach Bolton's voice had lost its anger, and now was full of regret and concern, what had he just done?

"Away. I quit." Troy opened the door and turned to face his father, leaning slightly on the doorframe.

"You're not a quitter Troy, you never have been. Even when you were a little boy you'd start something and no matter how many times you failed you'd just get up and try again. You've quit before now, and you'll never quit, don't take that wrong turn now." Troy watched his father; tears were forming in the corners of his eyes and for a moment a wave of sorrow swept through Troy's body. He quickly pushed the feeling away.

"Oh, how inspirational." Troy mocked, faking a yawn. "But honestly dad, you haven't exactly set the best example, what was it you said today before you walked out? Oh yeah, I remember: 'I give up on you guys; if you can't cooperate you can't be team. So go sort yourselves out, I give up.' Wow, real inspiration dad, you should be proud that I take after you, most normal fathers are, but then again you're not normal, you hate me." The man's face fell even more and lines of sadness began forming on his face.

"I don't hate-" But Troy interrupted.

"Oh give up. Do I look like I care about what you think or feel?" Troy pointed to his face, a forced expression of disdain cemented onto his usually gentle features. "A clue, no." He shook his head and turned around, pulling the door behind him as he walked away. "By the way dad," he started, still with his back to his father. "By 'I quit' I didn't just mean basketball." And, shooting his father a sarcastic smile, he left, slamming the door behind him.

Jack Bolton stood staring at the wooden dor before him. Troy was right, he shouldn't have pushed the team so far, they were already the best, and there was no need for them to improve. He shook his head and turned away from the door, hastily wiping his face as he began towards the kitchen; just because his son had just walked out on him, it didn't mean that dinner didn't have to be cooked.

Troy ran as fast as he could along the street, completely heedless too everything going around him (that was if anything was, he couldn't tell). Eventually the pain from his legs reached his brain and he had to stop when his left knee collapsed beneath him, throwing his weight onto his right leg, which buckled too. Troy let out a strangled sob as he lay on the pavement, he had just had three hours of basketball, then a fight with his dad; of course he would have enough energy to run. He let his body relax and tried to resist the tears prickling at the back of his eyes.

Troy didn't know how much later it was when he got up. All he knew was that it was now sunset and he wasn't alone.

"Troy?" Gabriella's soft voice finally reached him and he sat up, feeling her hand on his cheek. He quickly brushed it off.

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" Troy rolled his eyes and stood, stretching his arms and legs as he began walking away.

"Yeah, I just thought the gutter would be a nice place for an afternoon nap." He answered sarcastically, ignoring the paint he flashed through her face. "What does it look like Gabs?"

"What happened?" She caught up to him and fell into step beside him, he rolled his eyes and sped up, holding back a growl as she did too.

"Nothing that effects you."

"Troy, if it effects you then it effects me, okay? What's wrong?" She dug, not yet intimidated by his obvious unwillingness to talk.

"Nothing, like I said before. I just need some time on my own." He held out his hand beside him and for a moment Gabriella was confused at the sudden mood swing. The she figured out that he had no intention to hold her hand as he blocked her way with it and ran ahead.

"Troy, I want to help." She said after him as he tried to get away from her. He stopped and looked back at her.

"You want to help?" he asked in what seemed like an incredulous tone.

"Yes Troy, of course I want to help. What do you want?" She walked towards him, despite knowing immediately that she wouldn't like his answer to her question.

"I'd like my basketball jersey back, thanks. You stole it a while ago and I really kind of need it." Gabriella stared at him.

"What do you mean?" She asked confusedly, trying to work out what relation it had to their conversation.

"The one I gave you ages ago, with the Red Hawks thing, I found met this collector guy who'll give me a heap of cash for it." Troy smirked slightly as Gabriella gaped at him. The ironic thing was that for once he wasn't lying; there was a college memorabilia collector who was willing to pay Troy for the jersey, but at the time he hadn't even thought twice of it, now he was reconsidering; that much money would be way ore useful than a jersey.

"But… you gave it to me as a present." Gabriella felt tears forming in her eyes and swallowed to try and hold them back.

"For what Gabs? It was really more for just safekeeping, and now that you've kept it safe for long enough I need it back." He extended his hand and looked at her expectantly, as if hoping she'd just have been carrying it with her.

"You gave it me for 'safekeeping'? Troy I can't believe you!" Her voice was rose as she became angrier. He shrugged, still smirking.

"C'mon, you know how I am with stuff, I'd probably have lost it or messed it up by now, I bet you kept it in great condition."

"That's because I thought it was gift from you, I wanted to be able to remember you by it!" her tone became slightly hysterical as tears begun leaking out of her eyes, dropping un evenly onto the pavement like drops of rain.

"Why do need to remember me, I don't plan on leaving anywhere." Troy knew he was acting stupid and arrogant, but he still had so much anger stored in him after the explosion at his dad, and Gabriella was a fantastic subject to release it on.

"And what if I leave." Her words were whispered but Troy heard every one of them.

"What?" Suddenly his tone had changed and just those five words brought him back to himself.

"How can you just take me for granted like this, Troy?" She was still whispering, looking at the ground as more and more tears fell onto the concrete pavement. Troy found himself wanting to catch them instead.

"Gabi, I didn't mean it like that, I'm just having a bad day and-" but she interrupted him, still in a barely audible whisper.

"How can you just assume that I'll always be there? How can you be so naïve and inconsiderate?" Her voice slowly rose as she brought her gaze up to meet his. "How can you be so stupid?" Troy shook his head.

"No Gabi, no. I didn't mean any of it, I love you."

"And you think that'll make everything better?" Troy noticed that Gabriella's tears had halted and she was staring at him straight on, as if she no long cared.

"Please. I didn't mean any of that other stuff I said, I was just angry at my dad, I've been having a bad day and-"

"So it's okay to take it all out on me?" She looked at him questioningly, she truly wanted him to answer her question, she didn't want him to say sorry or beg her for forgiveness.

"No, of course not, but I was just, so…" he sighed and shook his head again. "I don't know Gabs. There's just so much going on, it feels like I have no time to be with you, and I thought you'd be missing it as much as I was."

"Of course I missed you." As much as Troy wanted to believe her, Gabriella's tone was cold and she said it as if it was only a minor topic. "Is this your way of showing how much you missed me?" Suddenly Troy saw through her words. He saw through her blank expression and cold tone. He finally saw that all of this was a cover-up for her inner-pain. She truly didn't want him to beg, she just wanted him.

"Gabriella." She blinked once, just once, and felt her guard flicker. His tone was so serious and sincere. Just one word made her positive that eh cared about her more than he could ever express with words or actions. "I'm sorry. Dad's been pushing the whole team so hard, we just had three hours of training and-" Troy stopped, he was babbling, he needed to get back to the point.

"Anyway, I tried to talk to him about it, about how he was pushing us too hard, but he didn't want to hear it. We got into an argument. In the end I walked out, I told him I quit." All of a sudden Troy felt himself being embraced by a warm, comfortable body. Gabriella had thrown her arms around his neck and was hugging him tight, trying to rid the space between their skins of anything but clothes. He felt his body react to hers and his hands held her hips, one creeping up to her back and rubbing it slowly.

"I'm so sorry Troy." He was immediately aware of her lips near his ear as she breathed out that single sentence.

"You shouldn't be." He murmured back, burin his face in her dark curls, cascading down her neck and over her shoulders. She smiled into his cheek and pressed her lips to it lightly, nuzzling his temple with her nose as she did. "And you can keep the jersey." Gabriella giggled almost silently and kissed his cheek again.

Right now she was what he needed -maybe he'd go back to his dad later and apologise, maybe not- but for right now, she was all that he wanted, and visa versa.

**WOW!!! How long was that? Well, i thought it was long. I'm not sure if it was that good thought, pretty mood-swingy, like I said before. Also, if I haven't posted my next capter of Just Friends when you read this I will momentarily, cause I knwo what i want to happen I just need to finihed writing it, so my deal is still on,**


	18. TELL, BEAUTIFUL

**Sorry this has taken so long to updarte, but like I siad in Just Friends, my social life has sort of come into existance suddenly, but I'm pretty usre it's disappeared again for now, so hopfully i'll be updating more often for a while. Also, just so you guys know i hate this chapter, i don't think it delves deep enough into feelings and thoughts, but i sort of got writers block halfway through it and couldn't work out how to birng the title in, so i'm sorry that this isn';t very good and that it's so short.**

_Dedicated to Rose cos I'm her fave fanfic writer (so she mustn't read much of it, lol jks), Emma who was really really niuce to me and asked if i could make this go on forever, which sadly, i can't cos I'm not immortal and (this was a tough one to decide because I needed to choose just one person) Tayla, my friend from my old school who I can be almost sure will never read this but who i miss heaps and heaps even thoguh I haven't really seen her in two years._

_**TELL**_** me I'm **_**BEAUTIFUL**_**, but not too often…**

Gabriella sighed and leant back against the cabin of Troy's truck; she was in pure bliss.

"Gabi?" Troy's voice came from somewhere behind her.

"Hmm?"

"Do you want anything besides a blanket, cause I still have some food and stuff left?" Gabriella laughed quietly, Troy didn't seem to get that he didn't need to spoil her. Yes, she enjoyed it from time to time, but she already felt guilty enough having been angry at Troy all day, to be rewarded with such an amazingly perfect date. She was positive that no matter how wonderful Troy thought she was, she didn't deserve this.

"I didn't even want a blanket, Troy, just come back here."

"Okay beautiful, but if you freeze it's your own fault." He said, appearing at the car's door. Gabriella shrugged and motioned for him to join her in the tray, which he did obligingly. Troy crawled over to Gabriella and sat beside her quietly, slipping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her closer to him. She sighed again and let herself melt into him, her head dropping to the crook of his neck and both her hands holding his.

"How could this be any more perfect?" Gabriella mumbled after a while.

"Well, if we weren't both freezing cold, if it weren't starting to rain, if there wasn't that one huge tree in the way of our view of the valley, if the car hadn't broken down, if-" Gabriella scowled at him.

"Troy, it was a rhetorical question."

"-and if we weren't sitting in the tray of a fifty year old uncomfortable truck-"

"That you helped your dad make." Gabriella pointed out.

"-and if we were with a whole heap of our friends and if I had something better to give you…" Gabriella pulled away from him and stared at him. Troy kept his expression strictly blank and avoided Gabriella's eyes, but a couldn't help letting a small smirk play on his lips.

"Something better?" Gabriella mimicked, trying not to look hopeful. Troy nodded absent-mindedly and looked up the sky, scattered with millions of tiny stars. "You mean you got me something?" Troy shrugged. "Where is it?"

"You know people usually ask 'what is it'…"

"I don't want to know what it is, I can find that out when you give it to me. Do you have it with you?" Troy shrugged again and smirked as Gabriella made a frustrated noise. "How can you not know?" Shrugging one more time, just to make sure that Gabriella was well and truly annoyed, Troy slid off the side of the tray and went around to the car door. Gabriella watched his back as he shuffled through his bag that he'd left on his seat, eventually emerging with something small cupped in his hands. She held her breath as he came and sat beside her again, looking nervous.

"You might not like it." He warned, looking Gabriella in the eyes.

"You're giving it to me, of course I'll love it."

"Love is probably an extravagant overstatement."

"Whoa, extravagant, big word, and love is never an overstatement when I'm talking to you." Troy smiled slightly, still looking nervous.

"Tell me if you don't like it, okay? And I'll never try to get you a present ever again."

"Well now I have to like it, don't I? Please just let me see it." Gabriella's voice had gotten whiny and annoying, which made Troy chuckle.

"You know you sound like a five year old at Christmas?" Gabriella pouted at him and shifted her legs so they were crossed under her.

"Please just give it to me Troy." He let his smile drop to a more serious expression, and reached one of his hands out to her face, caressing her cheek lightly.

"Close your eyes." Gabriella let her eyelids flutter closed, and whimpered quietly when the warmth of Troy's hand left her cheek. "Don't worry, I'm still here. Now give me your hand." She felt her body begin trembling in anticipation and nervousness as she reached out towards Troy. Her arms erupted in goosebumps as her boyfriend's soft hand took hers. "Relax, Gabi. What's wrong?" Troy asked gently, feeling her trembling.

"I'm just nervous," she muttered quickly, her breathes sharp. "You're really building this up for me, aren't you? You do know that I'm going to be hugely disappointed if the surprise is a letdown, don't you?" Troy smiled, despite his earlier words; somewhere inside of him he knew that Gabriella would love his present.

"It won't be." He answered confidently, his other hand hovering over the one that was grasping Gabriella's, its palm clenched around the tiny gift.

"Alright Mr. Confidence if you're so sure."

"Oh, don't worry, I am." Gabriella smiled as she felt Troy's other hand take hers. She gasped when the small piece of metal landed on her palm landed on her palm. "Open your eyes." Troy's voice was barely audible, but Gabriella forced her eyes open and she stared down at her and Troy's entwined hands. Her present was somewhere in there.

Troy's confident smirk faltered a little as he untangled their fingers and slowly lifted his hands away from Gabriella's, he had been so sure that she'd like it… what if she didn't? He looked away, hoping that Gabriella would gasp or hug him or something if she liked it. There was silence

Gabriella stared down at the ring, completely speechless. How could something so small and inanimate make her feel so… complete? She opened her mouth and tried to speak, just to thank Troy and then go back to her silent amazement, but her throat refused to make a sound, and instead her mouth just opened and closed soundlessly.

"I'm sorry Gabriella, I know it looks kind of cheap, and I know it's probably too big, but I just wanted something that you could remember me by, and I guess it was stupid trying to get something even half as beautiful as you. I'm sorry." Gabriella shook her head violently, closing her hand around the gold ring and tearing her gaze up to meet Troy's.

"No Troy." Was all she could get out, before clearing her throat and trying again. "No. I love it; I love it so so so much. It's amazing, it's gorgeous, it's beautiful-" but at this Troy cut her off by shaking his head.

"Gabi. I spent so long trying to find a ring as beautiful as you, as perfect and as flawless and as… amazing, but I couldn't find one. And it took me this long to realise that it's just a piece of jewellery and of course it can never match up…" Gabriella smiled shyly at his words.

"Do you have any idea how many times you've called me beautiful just now?" she asked.

"Not enough, cause I never called you that before. For ages I never said it, and I should've, because you were just as beautiful then as you are now." He looked down at his knees, avoiding Gabriella's concerned eyes.

"Troy." She said it slowly yet sharply, and when he didn't look up she placed her hand on his cheeks and pulled his head up to face her. "Troy, I love it. It is beautiful. And if you'd called me beautiful this often al through our relationship it would have lost its meaning. It's so much nicer for you just to call me it a few times."

"Really?"

"Really. Truly." Troy smiled slightly. "Now are you going to put it on for me, or do I have to do it myself?" Gabriella opened her palm and offered Troy the ring, which he haltingly took. He glacned up at her reassuring smile, before reaching for her hand and tenderly sliding the golden band around her finger; it fit perfectly. Gabriella looked down at the ring, the light blue stone set into it was shimmering with the light of the stars and every small movement seemed to change its shape and colour.

In unison, both Troy and Gabriela drew their gazes up from the ring at to each other. Troy still held Gabriella's hand tight.

"It's just a promise ring, just so you know that I'll always be here."

"I already knew that."

"But now other people can know too." Gabriella laughed, but it was cut off when Troy's lips touched hers. She kissed back eagerly without a second thought.

After all, as much as she loved getting presents from him, they were just a want. Troy had long ago become a need.

**Yuck, I hated that (I actually thinkt hat the number of times I've written that probably outweighs the number fo times I've written 'i loved that' how pathetic...).**

**But here's an important message, and no killing me because of it, there are three more chapters to go, which I know means there are actually more than 18, but I made up ojne of my own and found out that I'd missed out on a few fromthe original picture. The actualy point of saying that though, was to ask if people would like me to write an epilogue-type thing for this, but I'm not quite sure how I'd structure it. **

**1)What I'd like to do, is for you wonderful readers to tell me which chapters you like best and then I'll write either a conclusion or a sequel for all of them, but I'm not quite sure if that idea would work, so please send me other ways I could write an epilogue (yes, i do know what an epilogie is, but it's rather hard to do for a collection of unrelated oneshots). **

**2)My other idea was just to write a paragraph explaining what happens immediately after the end of each chapter, ie, for this I might write a paragraph saying that the NRMA (which is Australian so I'm not sure what the American one is) eventaully arrived and fixed up Troy's car so he and Gabriella got back to their concerned parents safe and sound. Okay? **

**so please tell me which you'd rather, or give me an entirely new format for my epilogue.**


	19. LAUGH, NO ONE ELSE

**Sorry that this has taken a while to update, but i wrote this chapter all of last night and this morning so be grateful... lol. But it actually is pretty long (for me), a little over 4 pages on micro word. Also this chaoter doesn't relate all that much to the title, because i didn't really just want to be writing jokes cos they';re never funny when they're written and most of my jokes are sarcastic so i can't write them anyway.**

_Dedicated to dancingsparrow112 because somehow their name slipped through my dedication system and ch 13 was supposed to be dedicated to them but it wasn't and i lost the email that siad their review so i'm sorry that i can't comment on that and i'm also sorry for not dedicating to them for so long, YaDoDOBird because the last chapter made them all etary-eyed and Haloangel1504 cos its a cool name and cos her emoticon was backwards (i'm the sort fo eprson who noticed that)._

**Make me **_**LAUGH**_** like **_**NO ONE ELSE**_** can…**

Troy sat in his lounge room on the couch, watching mindless TV that he was barely watching anyway. He'd been there for hours, ever since his parents left he house and he was convinced that he could finally watched some of the shows that he liked, instead of being forced to watched endless hours of news and lifestyle shows when his mum was watching or basketball when his dad was. But, after scanning through every single channel imaginable including celebrity gossip channels, movie channels, music channels (why not just listen to the radio?), channels on the supernatural (some guy was going on about a UFO shaped like a star… did no one consider that it could have actually been a star?), animal documentaries, space documentaries, random documentaries, news, about fifty different sports and static, he discovered that maybe there'd been a reason why he'd never watched TV before. Nothing at all on it interested him the slightest.

So now, Troy was sitting on his sofa with an already finished can of coke and a half finished packet of chips and his iPod plugged into his ears watching video clips. How exciting and inspiring.

Gabriella had gotten home about 10 minutes ago from decathlon practice and found herself in a similar situation. Her mum was out at a work party and had left her some frozen who-knows-what-it-was-supposed-to-be for dinner, which honestly didn't look very appealing to a girl who'd been brought up on home cooked meals. After getting change and finishing her homework (both of which took about two minutes each), Gabriella sat down in her kitchen and glared at the plastic tray of stuff that she was expected to microwave then eat with an expression of disdain. There was no way that she was eating that.

As both Gabriella and Troy sat around doing nothing, Gabriella had the idea to call Troy and see what he was doing, after all, even he was busy a girl is allowed to call her boyfriend cause she's bored at any time, it just doesn't work the other way round. Troy looked up from his iPod when he heard the phone ring, wondering whether or not it was really worth picking it up. Deciding that even a telemarketer might be more interesting to talk to than no one, he slowly stood and wandered towards the phone, finding it not on its hook but buried under his mother's newspaper from that morning.

"Hello?"

"Troy?"

"Gabi? Hey."

"Hi, you picked up really quickly."

"I'm psychic." Gabriella laughed at Troy's monotone.

"I'm sure you are. What are you doing right now?"

"That's a slightly stalker-ish question, but nothing, why?"

"Can I come over?" Gabriella knew that the question was a little awkward, but ignored it.

"Um… my parents aren't home." Troy pointed out, and Gabriella winced on the other end of the line.

"Oh." That made it a lot more awkward. Did she just seriously ask if she could go over to his house while he was there alone? From Troy's silence she guessed that actually had. "Right… sorry…"

"But you still can if you want to." Troy cut in quickly, trying to break Gabriella's awkward stuttering.

"Uh, I'd still like to come over… if your parents won't mind." She added, worried that it might still sound weird.

"Well, seeing as my parents aren't here they really can't have much to object to." Gabriella nodded, then remembered that Troy couldn't see her.

"Yeah…"

"Yeah…" he agreed, glancing over at the TV, now playing the video clip for 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies'… he couldn't belie that the station would play a song that old.

"Um, look, I have some gross microwave stuff that we could have for dinner, do you want me to bring it over?" Gabriella tried to restart the conversation as she found her bag in the hallway and carried it into the kitchen, ready to pack full of food.

"Because you made it sound so appealing- I think I'll pass, thanks."

"Well then what will I have for dinner?"

"Uh, over here I've been eating cereal, yoghurt, some sort of powerbar, and icypoles."

"Troy, that's gross!" He shrugged.

"You can bring your microwave stuff if you want." Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Okay. I'll be there soon. Bye, love you."

"I love you too." They both hung up.

Gabriella grabbed a few more things and stuffed them into her bag, then found her keys and hurried out the door. Troy's house was only three blocks away, but they were big blocks and it'd take her at least 20 minutes to get there.

Troy hung up the phone (this time actually on the hook) and wandered back to the couch, flopping down on that once he reached it. He sighed and turned off the TV, looking around him at the mess he'd made whilst lying around for the last couple of hours. There were wrappers and empty packets and half empty soft drink bottles all around where he'd been sitting… he couldn't remember eating that much. Sighing again he stood and began picking up all of his rubbish, dumping it in the bin in the kitchen before going back into the lounge room.

The next problem was that the room stank a little of fatty foods and sugar, which Gabriella definitely wouldn't like. After scrambling through stuff in his mother's 'cleaning cupboard' he managed to locate an air freshener and a vacuum cleaner, both which seemed to lessen the smell once he'd used them. Then he realised that he smelt too, after all sitting amidst that smell for as long as he had made it almost sure to rub off on him. So he had a ultra quick shower and changed into nicer clothes, although inevitably was unable to find a clean shirt until the moment that the doorbell rang and he had to go let Gabriella inside.

Gabriella stood at the door in a jacket and jeans, it was pretty cold outside, so it came as a surprise to even her when Troy opened the door wearing only jeans and carrying his shirt. She stood staring (unintentionally) for a moment, then looked up at his face, forcing her eyes not to leave his, which wasn't all that hard really.

"Aren't you cold?" She asked, actual curiosity in her tone along with humour. Troy shrugged and stepped away from the door, allowing Gabriella to go in where, she had to admit, it was much warmer; so she immediately took off her jacket revealing a singlet top underneath.

"Aren't you cold?" Troy copied, closing the door behind her.

"I forgot you had central heating." Troy was silent as he followed her into the kitchen where she hoisted her bag onto the table and began unloading it. Seeing her boyfriend's blank face Gabriella tried again. "Air con.?"

"Oh!" Troy nodded and watched Gabriella pull dish after dish of food out of her bag. "Why did you bring so much?"

"It didn't sound like you'd eaten properly, so I thought I'd make you some proper dinner." Gabriella glanced at him once she'd finished unpacking her bag, and found her eyes stuck on his bare chest again. "And if you're going to be in the same room as me can you please put a shirt on."

"You mean anytime I'm in the same room as you? Or just now?" He asked curiously, slipping between her and bench she was going to. Gabriella stopped with Troy's body inches from hers and looked him directly in the eyes.

"Anytime." Troy gaped and moved out of her way when she pushed his shoulder, trying to keep his expression of mock hurt on without laughing.

"You do know that that could make it kind of difficult for us to…" he trailed off, looking piercingly at Gabriella's back. She turned around and their eyes met again.

"Maybe I don't ever plan on us doing…" she trailed off too, but purposely and raised her eyebrows at Troy before going back to the pile of food that she'd left on his bench.

"You plan on us ever going swimming? Gabi, I mean I knew you didn't like sport, but swimming? You won't even do that?" On the way back between the benches Gabriella managed to both hit him and send a death glare at him; Troy began backing out of the room.

"Go find your shirt, then you can come and help." She offered, still walking between the two benches, putting things in the microwave, oven and fridge as she prepared each thing.

"But I'm more comfortable without my shirt and not helping, so how is this any incentive to get me to do either?" Gabriella rolled her eyes and stopped between the two benches, fixing her gaze on Troy, who instantly stopped smirking.

"So you want some sort of incentive, do you?" She asked slowly, almost whispering each word. Try nodded haltingly, knowing that by agreeing he was just getting himself into more trouble. "Good. Go get your shirt and then you'll get your reward, okay?" Nodding again Troy left the room, Gabriella smirking behind him; he was so easy to manipulate.

Taking his time in the hallway to find his shirt, Troy rolled his eyes and his smirk returned; Gabriella thought she had so much control in their relationship, but ultimately he was the guy, the bigger one, the stronger one, he had the power. Finally finding his shirt (it had fallen off the mantelpiece where he'd put it and into the pile of bags below) and pulling it on, Troy was in the process of buttoning it up when he heard a voice coming form the kitchen.

"Uh, Troy?" Gabriella's tone was uncertain.

"Yeah?" He responded, starting towards the kitchen even as he still tried to button the last few top buttons on his shirt.

"I swear I didn't do anything but-" Troy entered the kitchen and saw two plates of vegetables on the bench, as well as a lot of empty plastic trays in the bin. Gabriella was tugging at the oven door, unable to open it, and there was a thin stream of smoke coming from inside.

"You can't open the oven?" Troy asked, almost jokingly. Gabriella glared at him. Troy smirked and went over to her, switching the oven off before opening it. They both jumped away coughing when more smoke came rushing out.

"How did you do that?" Gabriella asked in an annoyed tone.

"You need to turn it off, it's a kids safety thing." Gabriella glared at the oven as if it was its fault that the meat had been burnt, which technically it was. "Don't worry, there wasn't that much smoke, I'm sure whatever was in there will be fine." Troy tried to put on a comforting tone, but it came out in more of a mocking one, and earned him a hit on the arm. Taking his chance, Troy grabbed Gabriella's hand as she hit him and pulled her around to face him. Gabriela noticed in the time that the top two buttons of Troy's shirt were undone, exposing the tiniest bit of his chest. Gabriella tried to pull out of Troy's grip, but her struggling just let him pull her closer and soon she could feel his breaths on the back of her neck. Then she felt his lips there and tried hard not to move or respond in any way.

As Troy's kisses on her neck grew more and insistent (also closer and closer to her lips), Gabriella stopped struggling and let him turn her around so that she was facing him. After another two or three kisses, Gabriella rolled her eyes and in one quick movement, wrapped her arms around Troy's neck and pulled his face up to hers so tat she could crash her lips against his. He obliged and moved both of his hands to her waist, pulling her closer to him so that their bodies were pressed together.

An annoying beep stopped them and they both turned to look at the source of the noise.

"Oven, kid safety thing, it beeps when it's cooled down." Troy muttered, loosening his grip on Gabriella, who nodded and moved away from her boyfriend. Gabriella was very conscious of Troy's eyes on her back as she took the slightly burnt lasagne out of the oven and served it up onto their plates. She carried both plates into the lounge room and settled down on the floor with hers, putting Troy's on the table beside her. Troy wandered in a moment after, and Gabriella was pleased to see that he'd buttoned the top three buttons on his shirt… the third one had come undone in the last minute… it may have been her fault.

"So, what do you want to watch?" Gabriela asked as Troy sat on the couch behind her, his legs just on her right. Troy shrugged, indicating towards the cabinet full of DVDs next to the TV. Gabriella crawled over to the cabinet and began going through eh movies in there. Most of them she'd already seen or had no desire whatsoever to see ever in her life, so they weren't too good. Then she found another shelf at the bottom that she'd never noticed before because usually she was standing when she picked DVDs and went through some of the ones in there. One in particular interested her, so, not letting Troy see what she was holding, she quickly put it in the TV and started it. Troy stared at the screen in mild interest while picking at his dinner, then groaned when the titles came up. '_Baby Troy's Firsts'_ Gabriella crawled back to the couch and leant against Troy's legs to stop him getting up and turning off the movie.

"Gabi, I promise that you don't want to watch this."

"Oh no, Troy, I promise I do." He groaned again and closed his eyes as Gabriella grabbed the remote from the table and pressed play.

The next hour was soent with Gabriella rolling on the floor laughing, troy cringing on the couch and baby Troy on the screen saying, "Mama! Look at my tummy!", "Ball!" (his first word), "Truck,", "Waaaaa! My knee is ow!" (his first injury), and similar phrases. Once the movie finished Gabriella had her face buried in the carpet, shaking with fits of both silent and non-silent laughter and Troy was holding a pillow over his face hoping that he could suffocate himself. When he heard the movie finishing he quickly got up and ejecting the DVD, putting it in its case and keeping it with him so that he could hide it later. He took his and Gabriella's plates into the kitchen, then sat on the floor next to her still laughing form that was lying next to him.

"Gabi?" He started, trying to see if she was still laughing or actually choking or something and he just couldn't tell. She continued laughing soundlessly. "Um, I'm going up to my room, you can let yourself out at any stage. Goodnight." Touching her back lightly before he stood, Troy left the room and hurried upstairs; maybe he'd die in his sleep of embarrassment.

Gabriella stopped laughing when she realised that her boyfriend had left, the feel of his hand on her back lingering a little through her thin top. She sat in silence, suddenly angry with herself for making Troy look stupid. Standing, she followed him upstairs, pausing outside his closed bedroom door. Did he just not want her to come in, or was he trying to kill himself, or was he just getting changed? Gabriella shrugged and turned the handle, grateful that Troy's parents didn't let him put a lock on his door; whatever he was doing she'd seen it before (apart from the attempting suicide thing).

Troy looked up when he heard his door open and watched Gabriella walk in and sit at the end of his bed.

"Hey." She said quietly. He just looked away. "I'm sorry?"

"It's okay." He mumbled, still turned away. "Everyone laughs at everyone's baby videos."

"That's not why I was laughing." Gabriella explained quickly, but Troy just gave her a look before turning away again. "Okay, so I was sort of laughing cause of that, but that wasn't the main reason."

"Then what was?" troy asked in a monotone, not really expecting an answer as soon as Gabriella gave him one.

"I was laughing at how you are so different now, but not different too. I mean you look nothing like that little guy on the screen, so at the beginning it's so hard to believe that a cute little baby like that grew up to be… you." Troy looked up at her, a hint of forgiveness in his expression. "If it had been any other random baby a lot of the same things would've happened, I didn't laugh because it was you doing stupid stuff, I laughed cause it was a baby doing baby stuff, which is always funny."

"But you said-" Try started, but Gabriella cut over him.

"And then later on I could start seeing how this baby was you, just in little ways. Like how you smirk and laugh and smile, it's all the same, even when you didn't have any teeth." Troy's expression hardened at her last comment, and she gave him an apologetic look. "And how you're so insistent that what you think is right, and how you get embarrassed when people prove you wrong; if I didn't know you as well as I do, I wouldn't have picked up on much of it at all."

"Am I really that different?" Troy asked, sitting up.

"Sort of, on the surface yes, but inside you're still that two year old kid who wants his mummy." She smiled cheekily as she said the last bit, and Troy rolled his eyes.

"I guess."

"But I like you better now." Gabriella added, shifting a little closer to him.

"Why?" Troy sounded confused, as if he saw no reason for her to like him as a teenager in comparison to when he was a baby.

"Because you can do this." Gabriella leant forward and pressed her lisp against his, in what was intended to be a quick kiss. Troy instantly responded and cupped her face with on of his hands, the other pulling her closer to him. Gabriella giggled into the kiss when she felt Troy's hand pulling her down from her sitting position, and had to readjust her legs before she could lie comfortably on top of him, their lips still locked together. Pulling apart to catch their breath, both Troy and Gabriella lost themselves in the other's eyes.

"I guess I mightn't have been able to do that 15 years ago."

"No, probably not."

"Yeah, you'd have squished me even more than you are now." Gabriella put on an expression of pretend hurt and moved away as if deciding to leave. "Oh, come on, where are you going?"

"If you're just going to be rude to me-" She muttered, but it turned into a soft scream as Troy pulled her back against him and kissed her again, harder and more confidently.

"You're not going anywhere." He murmured into her ear, nipping that lightly too, before returning to her lips.

"At leats not until your parents come home." She added, smiling as he shrugged and continued kissing her. How could either of them want anything more?

**I think I've done that ending before... but I've done most endings before, so i can't really change that. I'm also sorry that it ended to suddenly but i really needed to draw it up somehow cos i really wanted to do somehtign else that was stuck in my head but i made myself finsih this first. I just rememebred a joke that I fidn so lame that its funny, which is: **

**Q. What did the blonde call her pet zebra?**

**A. SPOT!!!**

**lol, that is so lame and yet so funny... i saw it on a tv show in this really lame new report type thing... hilarious in my mind. so now you kniow why i stuck with baby vieos instead of jokes in the chapter.**


	20. SIT, HOLD ME, STORMS

**Whoa, it seems like its been so long since I've updated this, which it has been so I'm sorry. But life has been kind of hectic right now, what with trying beat 'legen dof Zelda and the Twilight Princess' on Wii and trying to improve my effort in 'Mario Cart DS' on DS and re-re-re-reading the Harry potter series because i just bought the cool box set with the adult edition covers (very fancy) AND witnessing my baby cousin's first steps last night (!!!) at a Christmas party (along with entertaining my toddler cousin who i needed to bribe into eating her turkey for dinner. So I've been very busy.**

**But here is the second last chapter of I Want, and the number of reviews has been absolutely amazing and I really do thnak you all so much for reading and reviewing what has turned out as my most successful fanfiction story yet (and probably ever). This chapter is pretty short, but I like it, and I made up the titale so it is completely homemade, which is also part of my excuse for why it took so long. I hope you like it, and could we try and make it to 150 reviews, just cos that's a nice neat number? Just an idea... and i guess i could review my onw story if i was that desperate, so scrap that idea.**

_Dedicated to Alfie 101 because apparently these oneshots are amazing (I wish), MoreThanUMoreThanMe because she couldn't get to sleep without reading all of the chapters and cos she syad tat i shouldn't keep on saying that i hate the chapters and stuff which is very ncie of her, and Funkywatermelon because hey awarded me an award(!), thanks!_

_**SIT**_** with me and **_**HOLD ME**_** through **_**STORMS**_**…**

Gabriella whimpered slightly as another flash of lightening shot through the sky, briefly lighting up the thrashing trees and leaping shadows outside. Everyone in the packed hall looked up at the sudden burst of light, and a torrent of whispers broke out among the previously silent crowd.

"Whoa, I've never seen lightening like that before…"

"Did you see that? It had to be at least 50 feet long!"

"Wow! I'm so glad we're inside, but I wonder how we're going to get back to our cabins?" Gabriella shivered and hugged her jacket tighter around her, the whispers around her seemed to echo through her head as each person there finally began to realise the potential danger that they were in.

"Hey Gabs?" Chad's voice came from behind her, and Gabriella started when she felt someone tap her shoulder.

"Hmm?" she managed to squeak out.

"You're smart, are we going to be able to get back to our cabins tonight, or do you think the instructor are going to make us all sleep in here?"

"I'm not sure, if the lightening keeps on like this we can't go outside, it's much to dangerous, and they do have spare sleeping bags and stuff in here…" Gabriella shrugged, smiling slightly at Chad's grumble from behind her.

"I wanted to sleep in." Taylor, sitting next to Gabriella, opened her mouth to respond to Chad's complaining, but she clamped it shut again when a crack of thunder rang through the large hall, silencing everyone's whispers and causing a few people to flinch from their places on the floor.

"I think we'll be in here tonight Chad." Troy said, and Gabriella felt a warmth spread through her body when his hand rested on her shoulder. "Which is probably a good thing, I don't really like the idea of getting fried by lightening on the way to our cabins; and I'm not that desperate to sleep in." Chad huffed grumpily and moved back a bit, so that there was room for Troy to squeeze closer to Gabriella. She leaned back so that her back was resting against Troy's chest, then let him pull her further into his arms, wrapping them around her middle and resting his head on the back of her neck.

Gabriella shivered again as another flash of lightening lit up the hall; illuminating every corner and making shadows flicker away off the walls and floor. The rising breeze was still whipping around the scattered trees outside, and in the few seconds of nothingness between the lightening and the thunder, every student in the hall could hear the wind whistling ominously outside. Gabriella had to stop herself from imagining that she could feel the building shudder with every breath of wind battering its old brick walls and shaking the wooden floor beneath her.

A few girls (and maybe some of the boys too) screamed as more thunder crashed outside, this time sharper and louder than before. The lights flickered from the roof and the few adults assembled at the front of the hall looked worriedly at each other. Troy held Gabriella tighter as she closed her eyes and slid onto his lap, trying to shut out everything else besides him from her rushing thoughts. The roof wouldn't cave in, the walls wouldn't fall, the rattling doors wouldn't give way to the storm outside… and Troy wouldn't let go of her, no matter what.

"Everyone please listen." The entire hall looked up at the weedy looking, middle-aged man standing at the front of the hall, and complete silence fell, expect for the non-stop buffeting of trees and shrieking wind. "We have decided that it would be unsafe for anyone to leave the building tonight due to the rising storm outside. Therefore I request that all of you spread out a little into your space and each come and collect a sleeping bag from up the front." There was a general rush of movement as everyone began moving towards the front, but the instructor held up his hands and the movement stopped immediately. "It will be one sleeping bag per person, no exceptions, and there are more than enough for everyone." The crowd tittered despite themselves and even Gabriella smiled guiltily as troy smirked behind her and nudged the back of her neck with his nose, brushing away her hair until he felt her soft skin. "Okay, you can all start getting your sleeping bags now, please just be patient because I promise there are more than enough."

The crowd started moving again as every stood and began pushing towards the front of the room, Chad elbowing through the crowd as they parted obediently for him. Troy rolled his eyes and stood slowly as everyone behind him began forcing him and Gabriella forward.

"Chad will get us sleeping bags, we should just find somewhere to lie down." He said, offering Gabriella his hand to help her up. She held his hand even after she was standing and began pulling him to the back of the room, weaving through the crowd around them.

"Go near the back, everyone is pushing forwards so they'll all end up at the front." Troy nodded and let Gabriella keep on pulling him until the back wall of the building was in sight. He caught up to her and led her to a deserted corner where they both sat down again, Gabriella again curling up in her boyfriend's lap. She winced as another streak of lightening shot across the sky and more thunder came almost immediately behind it. How would anyone be able to sleep through this?

Troy kissed the side of Gabriella's face lightly and let her shift in his lap so that her side was against his chest. She dropped her head to his shoulder and buried her eyes in his shirt when more thunder and lightening respectively flashed and boomed outside. There was a loud crash and Troy looked out the window to a large tree collapse under the blaring wind, its twisted roots being pulled straight out of the ground with a tearing sound that echoed through the hall. Gabriella looked up at the noise but Troy pushed her head down again.

"Don't worry, its okay." He whispered, his lips against her ear as she shivered and let herself fall back onto his shoulder.

"I know." She said, one of her hands finding his and gripping it tight.

Troy didn't even wince at the tightness of her grip on his hand, or at the feel of her tears polling on his shoulder through his shirt and dripping down his arm. He just held her until Chad returned with the sleeping bags and then disappeared again to find the rest of his friends, leaving troy to wrap one sleeping bag around both him and Gabriella, with the second one lying unused on the floor next to them.

Maybe he couldn't make her safe in reality, if the roof did fall in then he wouldn't be able to stop it, if the walls gave way he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the wind rushing inside and throwing the hall into chaos. When the lights went out he couldn't do anything to make them turn on again, and he couldn't stop the noise coming in from outside, or the flashes of lightening, seemingly growing closer and closer with each streak. But he could hold her in his arms for the night, pull her closer to him every time she winced or another sob convulsed through her body. And all she wanted was for him to do that for her.

**It feels really weird to have almost finsihed this, I honestly didn't think i ever would... it feels like so long ago when i was browsing bebo and came upon that little icon that gave me the inspiration for this...**


	21. MOSTLY, BEST FRIEND, NEVER BREAK, HEART

**It's not the end of the 1st of January yet (at leats here it isn't) so I almsot kept my promise form the very beginning of this story. The one promise however, that I simply can't keep, is to keep this A/N short, because I have an awful lot of thanking to do, not to mention the usual dedications.**

**Firstly, I'd like to thank all of my First Time readers and reviewers, I was telling the complete and utter truth when I said that it was them who inspired me to write this. Secondly, I'd like to thank a few of you amazing reviewers who have consistently been complimenting me for so long, btu who i couldn;t dedicate to more than once because i've had so many othe rpeople to dedicate to. These people are: **_xoxstargazerxox__omgitzzzzzzJenny__HSMLUVER218__heebeejeebees__MoreThanUMoreThanMe__ScRuPuLoUs__BoSoxFanatic__i heart hairspray_** and **_mysupermanwillcome_**. It's you guys that I looked to every single time that I felt like giving up on this story, and I am bein completely honest. Lastly, I'd like to thank my friends who read my fanfiction stuff, I only know about 4 of you, but I appreciate it, ods are none of you will read this anyway, but still, just in case you didn't know how much my writing and the fact that you bother to waste your time reading it means to me. So thanks, all of you.**

**I also know that I made that sound like a really big thing, but hoensly this story has been very close to my heart ever since that very first (actual) chapter where I got more reviews than I could dedicate to the next chapter, which is why I've ended up with 5 to dedicate to now!**

_Dedicated to CJ.xox.Dancerella because she sob-bed, xokylersxo because her entire review consisted of the words 'aww' and 'cute', Con-foosed because I think she gave me the only bit of (contructive) criticism I've recieved for this story, adorkabletwenty7 because she asked her bus driver to wait so that she could finsih reading this (and the bus driver did!)_ _and heavensent666 because I think it'd be terrible to have me as the author of your life, imagine the spelling mistakes! plus, i'd probably kill you if i was in a bad mood or desert you when i couldn't think of anything new or exciting for you to do.

* * *

_

**But **_**MOSTLY,**_** who would be my **_**BEST FRIEND **_**and **_**NEVER**__**BREAK **_**my **_**HEART**_**…**

Gabriella and Troy sat at a picnic table surrounded by their friends. Chad, Taylor, Jason, Zeke, Kelsi and a few others were all squashed onto the uncomfortable wooden bench, all eating and chatting happily together. Gabriella wasn't sure if it was just her, but it seemed awfully like everyone was trying to make her and Troy fel as awkward as possible, with constant mentions of their relationship and even bets being placed on how far they'd gone, not that anyone bothered to ask.

Troy snuck a sideways look at his girlfriend as Chad loudly proclaimed that he'd once walked in on and Troy and Gabi making out, both of them topless, this, of course, was greeted by much laughter and patting on the back from his friends, but a distinct awkwardness and many mildly disturbed expressions from Gabriella's. She really didn't look very happy in his opinion, and hadn't eaten or spoken much for a while.

"But I mean, she'd seen you shirtless before, hadn't she?" Chad asked Troy, not bothering to keep his voice down at all.

"Well duh, he plays basketball man, he spends like half his life without a shirt on." Jason's comment caused more laughs and sniggers, and Troy could almost see Gabriella actually shrinking on her place on the bench. Kelsi was looking at her too, and shot Troy a quick concerned look before turning away again.

"On that lovely note," Troy began sarcastically, shoving Chad none too gently as he struggled to get off the bench. "I think I've got to be going, after all, time is of the essence, especially when I have some shirtless basketball to play." The bitter tone in his voice rang very noticeably through the assembled crowd, all of whom looked away guiltily, as if now feeling bad for laughing before.

"C'mon Troy, there's no reason to go yet." Chad pointed out, grabbing the base of friend's shirt and pulling him back to the bench.

"Yes there is." Troy shot back, almost angrily but not quite. Everyone was silent as Troy pried Chad's hand from him and stepped out of arms distance, glaring around at his friends before his eyes rested on Gabriella.

If anything, she'd shrunk even further into her bench since he'd last snuck a glance at her, which had been all of a minute ago in reality, but strangely enough felt like an awful lot longer. Troy gave a sort of half shrug at her, vaguely motioning for her to stand so that they could leave, but her dark eyes were fixed down onto the table; it seemed she'd barely noticed the sudden silence within the group. Beside her, Kelsi looked awkward and slightly confused at the sudden change in atmosphere, but helped by giving Gabriella a discreet nudge in the stomach, which apparently awoke her to what was going on around her. She frowned questioningly at Troy, who inclined his head towards the rest of the park behind them, attempting to communicate his desire for some time alone. Innocent time in which he didn't wish to do anything besides talk… or at least he didn't intend to, that didn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't if the opportunity arose. Nodding in a noncommittal way, Gabriella also stood (with difficulty) and walked quickly over to Troy, trying to ignore the prickling on the back of her neck that told her that everyone's eyes were fixed on her and Troy's retreating backs.

"What happened?" She whispered to Troy, finding his ear in the pretence of brushing some hair off his forehead.

"Chad was getting a little too excited…" was all that he muttered before looking back a shooting Chad one moire glare, which the afro-haired boy gladly returned. Gabriella managed an apologetic glance back at the now muttering group before her and Troy disappeared behind a small cluster of trees.

Troy sped up once he knew they were out of sight, leaving Gabriella behind a little as she jogged to keep up.

"Troy?" she asked quietly, hurrying along in his apparently angry wake. "Troy, what's wrong?" He still ignored her, and, if anything sped up a little. "Troy!" Gabriella's loud voice was heard from the people back at the table, who all stopped speaking and tried to see the couple.

Troy had stopped walking and was now standing still on the winding gravel path that led through the park. His form was rising and falling heavily, as though he was panting or breathing hard.

"Troy?" Gabriella's voice came again, softer and more concerned than before. He turned around to look at her, the angry gleam apparent in his sharp blue eyes as he looked deep into her chocolate brown ones.

"What?" he asked, his tone blank and empty of any feeling. Her face fell as she approached him slowly, worried that he might run away again.

"That's just it Troy- what? Please tell me what's wrong, because I know that you're angry. What is it?" She stopped a metre or so away from him, teetering on the spot between her heart's wish to be closer to him and her brain's thoughts to stay a small distance away; she'd never seen him this angry before and it scared her. He let out a frustrated noise and closed the distance between them, grabbing both her hand in his and squeezing them tight.

"You didn't hear them, did you?" He asked, his tone still dull. She shook her head slowly, trying to flinch at the tightness of his grip on her hands. "They were betting on us, talking about us, prying. I don't even know why…" he trailed off and looked down, resentment clear in his tone this time. Gabriella pulled one of her hands out of his and brought it to his cheek, caressing it softly as she murmured her answer.

"Why does it matter Troy? Why do you even care?" He turned his head away from her hand, but she wasn't put off and just moved her hand with him, still rubbing small circles into his cheek. "People are always going to talk about you. You're the basketball champion and the winter musical star, nothing you say or do is going to stop the bets and the rumours and the whisperings."

"But they're our friends, Gabi! They of all people should know-"

"Know what?" she interrupted sharply, cutting him off and causing him to flinch in surprise. "Know what it feels like to be in love, know about all the pressure and everything that comes from something as serious as this? Don't be silly, they have twice as much reason to talk about it as everyone else does, because they know how deep we're in this and how serious we are about it."

"How can they know when even I don't?" Troy muttered, almost as if eh was complaining.

"It's probably easier to see from the outside." Gabriella answered, shrugging it off as if it wasn't important anyway. "Besides, isn't it more fun when you don't know?"

"No, it isn't." Troy was still grumbling and refusing to look her in the eye. Gabriella held back a laugh and brought her lips up to meet his, not at all worried when he didn't respond to her mildly suggestive kiss. Eventually she pulled away, smiling brightly as if she didn't have a worry in the world.

"Troy, I honestly can't believe I'm saying this to you, but lighten up! It's the holidays and we're with our friends and having fun." He gave a dry chuckle at the last part.

"Fun?"

"Troy…" she said, drawing out his name. "Cheer up, why did you even want to leave the table to begin with?" She asked, trying to change the subject as she continued their way along the path, pulling him with her.

"Because they were all whispering and betting, like I said." He knew she was trying to change the subject to something a little lighter, but couldn't help taking the bait; somewhere deep inside he did _want_ to be happy, he just wasn't ready to acknowledge that yet and let his friends off so easily.

"But we whisper and bet, and they don't get all angry at us."

"That's different…"

"How?" Troy was silent, and Gabriella could tell that he was looking for an argument.

"It just is."

"You just want to be angry at them."

"Do not."

"Yes you do. You just want a reason to be able to do something, and you don't like being the underdog."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, stopping and pulling her towards him.

"You don't like not being the boss, you don't like being the one who's being made fun of. You're used to being on top." Neither of them could help smirking at this comment, as it brought back memories of a rather embarrassing event a few days ago including them, a brief conversation between kisses and a non-soundproof door. Needless to say it had been hilariously mortifying at the time.

"Maybe I am." He almost purred, his voice dangerously low and silky. Gabriella let out an involuntary giggle as he backed her up against a tree and fixed her with his very intense blue eyes.

"Maybe?" she repeated, her eyes shining mischievously. He cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows, vaguely resembling a confused puppy- at least in his girlfriend's eyes.

"No, not just maybe." He decided, finalising it by attacking her lips so ferociously that for a moment her lips were numb from the raw pressure being forced upon them. Soon enough though, Gabriella had adjusted to the new level of passion and let Troy take over, simply wrapping her arms around his neck (although letting herself slip one under his shirt onto his back) and allowed him to creep both hands under her top and up to her stomach, where one paused to massage lightly and the other kept on its steady course up.

"You know Troy," Gabriella said, pulling back and panting slightly as he took the opportunity to start on her neck. "I don't think I ever though you had this side, back when we were just friends." He pulled away and smirked at her.

"When exactly were we friends?"

"Really early on, you know, like ages ago." She said, emphasising the last words.

"You didn't you I could be so-?"

"On top…" she finished, smiling cheekily. He smiled back and nodded in agreement.

"Not all that many people know."

" 'All that many'?" Gabriella mimicked in mock horror. "You mean toher people have seen you like this?"

"Well, there was this girl the other day…" Troy began, but broke off laughing when she slapped him on the arm. "I'm kidding Gabi, no one else knows. Except that one other girl." She rolled her eyes and slapped him again before pulling away and beginning to walk.

"But it mustn't be that hard to know," she thought out loud. "I mean, I think I knew before we were really together, back when we were still just best friends."

"Which we still are now, aren't we?" Troy put in quickly, smiling when Gabriella nodded.

"Of course we still are, but now we're more too."

"Lucky us." He muttered dryly, earning another slap.

"But I sort of think that maybe other close friend's would know it too. Not necessarily from experience." She added, when Troy gave her a weird look. "But just sort of from being so close to you."

"Yeah, I guess…" he murmured, moving his arm to around her shoulders and pulling her closet to him.

They wandered on in silence for a while, slowly following the twists and turns of the ultimately circular path, but barely aware of anything but each other. As they began to near the place where they'd started, their friends' voices drifting vaguely towards them, Troy stopped again and turned Gabriella around to face him.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you before." He said sincerely, looking her deep in the eyes.

"I know, and I'm sorry for winding you up, which I know it did, even if you don't think I did." Troy gave a light chuckle and wrapped his arms tighter around her waist, pulling her closer still.

"I think I'll manage to forgive you." He decided, nodding as if it were a hard decision to make.

"I'm not sure if I will." She said in response, her eyes sparkling again.

"Well maybe I'll just have to convince you." Leaning down and once again engulfing her lips in his, Troy tried to put everything he felt into that one single kiss. He anger and frustration, his sens eof loss and confusion, his happiness and fulfilment. But most of all, he put forward his want, not the lust type, but the love type. He wanted her, he needed her, and he needed her to know that. He needed her to know that he'd never do anything to hurt her, he'd never give up on her or them, he'd never ever break her heart. He wanted her to know. He wanted her to need.

**sniff sniff this is actually really sad for me, it's finally over...**

**thnx again absolutely everyone and please keep a look out for other stories of mine, some of them are actually sort of okayish. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And you are all expected to wish me a Happy Birthday for the fifth, just to add to your work load! Lol, i was kidding, birthday wishes aren't a must-have.**


	22. I Want

**I WANT A GUY...**

who would move the hair away from my _eyes_ and then kiss me,

_hold my hand_ in line at the mall and make all the girls jealous.

Someone who would _**sing**_ to me at random moments.

Who would let me sleep on his chest.

A **BOY** who would get mad at someone if they called me UGLY or were mean to me.

I want someone who would call me **3 **times a day if he went away.

Someone who would let me gossip to him

and just smile and agree with everything I said.

He would throw _stuffed animals_ at me when I acted dumb and then

**KISS ME A MILLION TIMES.**

Someone who would make fun of me just to make me _**laugh**_.

He would take me to the park and

put his hands around my waist and

give me big bearhugs all the time.

He would tell all his friends about me and **SMILE **when he did.

And we'd _make out_ in the _pouring rain_.

He would never be afraid to say _"I love you"_ in front of his friends,

and we'd argue about silly things and then make up.

I want a boy who would kiss me at midnight on _New Years_

and COUNT STARS with me.

Who would stay home with me on a Friday night

just to help me make dinner and watch movies together under the same blanket.

Someone who would tell me I'm _beauiful _but not too often,

who would make me laugh like **NO ONE **else could.

But mostly, I want someone who would be my _best friend_ and would never BREAK MY HEART.

* * *

**_Thank you to all._**


	23. AN

**NO THIS ISN'T ANOTHER CHAPTER!!!!**

**Sorry, but just thought I should get that over and done with before anybody got their hopes up.**

**So... I know it's been ages since I've done anything with this story, but I was reading over it the other day, and it desperately needs some tidying up.**

**I'm going to be fixing up the (many) grammatical and spelling mistakes throughout this story, as well as shortening some of the author notes, because I know that some were insanely long. A few of the chapters I may (MAY!) re-write, but only if I feel as if I could do them better. That means that, if you're still interested in this, keep watch, because it could be changing.**

**Also, if inspiration hits, and I get back into this story, I'll write couple more chapters. Since I finished, I've found a few more cute little 'I Want a Guy who...' sayings, which would be pretty fun to write.**

**I think that's it, so I'll just remind anyone who stumbles across this to take a look at some of my other stories. If you're an HSM fan, I have plenty of them. _When You're Gone_, _This Dance_, and _Keep Dancing_ are my favourites, but they're all oneshots and pretty heavy-going, not to mention tear-jerkers.**

**Hope some of the old crowd is still reading, and maybe I can rekindle that excitement that you guys used to feel whenever I posted a chapter. If not, I appreciate anyone who reads my work, and hope that these changes will serve to not only give me a bit of peace of mind, but also to benefit others, who would love this story if only they could make sense of some of the worse bits of it.**

**With lots of nervous apprehension,  
****Jg Rox**


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